5 From O.C. Dead as Van Flips in Arizona : Accident: 6 others suffer injuries on deserted highway. Group was returning from a religious pilgrimage.

SANTA ANA —  In yet another devastating vehicle accident that claimed the lives of Orange County residents, a van carrying 11 people overturned on an Arizona desert highway early Monday, killing five passengers and injuring all the others, authorities said.

The group of Vietnamese Americans was apparently returning to Santa Ana from a religious pilgrimage to Carthage, Mo., where about 72,000 Roman Catholics had gathered for a weekend retreat.

The accident occurred at 3:20 a.m. on a flat stretch of Interstate 40, about three miles east of the small town of Williams, Ariz., according to Joan Rivera, a spokeswoman for the Arizona Highway Patrol. Williams is about 30 miles west of Flagstaff.

“Everyone in the community is grieving right now, for these people to go and participate in something as holy as the pilgrimage only to end up in such a tragedy,” said Quy Hoang of the Vietnamese Catholic Center. “We are very unsettled right now.”

According to a preliminary report, the driver of the van, Duc Tran, 26, of Costa Mesa, lost control and veered off the left side of the road, causing the vehicle to roll three times and ejecting seven of the passengers, Rivera said.

Investigators said driver fatigue may have been a factor. No other vehicles were involved in the accident.

Only Tran--who suffered a broken knee and is recuperating at Flagstaff Medical Center--and one other passenger were wearing seat belts, Rivera said.

The five people killed were pronounced dead at the scene, Rivera said. The cause of the accident remains under investigation, but the 1995 Ford Minivan was fully equipped for 11 people, she said.

“That was the biggest problem; only two people were wearing seat belts,” Rivera said. “Both of those people survived.”

The dead were identified as Danh Pham, 23, of Westminster; Tru Tran, 54, of Westminster; Trinh Nguyen, 54, of Garden Grove; Chinh Vu, 37, of Westminster, and Thanh Huynh, 24, of Costa Mesa.

Along with the driver, the survivors were taken to Flagstaff Medical Center. They included Dung Phan, 27, of Garden Grove, who suffered a broken wrist; Luyen Do, 24, of Tustin, who suffered a broken knee, and Toan Pham, 24, of Westminster, who suffered a broken leg. Two others--Ducloc Do, 20, and Mailam Do, 22, both of Westminster--were treated and released from the hospital.

Some members of the group apparently were parishioners at St. Polycarp Catholic Church in Stanton. The group included relatives and choir members from several county Roman Catholic churches who had traveled to Missouri to pray and meet with Archbishop Van Thuan Nguyen, according to Yen Do, editor of the Nguoi Vietnamese Daily Newspaper in Westminster.

The accident was the latest in a series of major crashes in the past three weeks that killed 13 county residents and injured many others.

On July 29, four Katella High School students were killed on a Mojave desert road when their car rolled over on a deserted stretch of highway.

Two Fountain Valley High School teens died Aug. 8 when their Mustang clipped another car on Ellis Avenue in Fountain Valley, rolled several times and crashed into a telephone pole.

In separate accidents on Sunday, a 17-year-old Buena Park boy was killed when the car in which he was riding hit by a suspected drunk driver in Anaheim and a 17-year-old from San Gabriel was killed when his car was broadsided at Edinger Avenue and Brookhurst Street in Fountain Valley.

Times staff writer Lily Dizon contributed to this report.

* 2 TEENS DIE: Separate accidents Sunday claim lives of two. B2