One man was killed and four people were injured in related accidents involving five vehicles on Interstate 10 that snarled traffic near Sierra Blanca in both directions for more than three hours Wednesday.

The man who died is a resident of Mesa, Ariz. His identity and the names of the people injured were not released.

Four of the victims, including a man who suffered life-threatening injuries, were hospitalized, officials said.

Two men were rushed by ambulance to Thomason Hospital in El Paso, and a woman and an infant were taken by ambulance to medical center in Culberson County, where they were treated and released.

Trooper Harry Hoelscher of the Texas Department of Public Safety said the pileup was a result of two separate but related accidents about eight miles west of the Border Patrol checkpoint near Sierra Blanca.

A preliminary investigation revealed that around 7:30 a.m., a pickup driven by the Arizona man was traveling east on I-10 about 13 miles west of Sierra Blanca when it was rear-ended by a tractor-trailer.

The impact launched the pickup into the median, where it rolled several times, then came to rest on its roof in the westbound lanes, Hoelscher said.

Occupants of two vehicles traveling on I-10 West stopped to help. While the good Samaritans
were at the scene, they were involved in a second collision.

“There was a third vehicle that came along and struck the other two vehicles and the people that were stopping to render aid,” Hoelscher said.

Hoelscher described the third vehicle as westbound tractor-trailer.

He said that in addition to striking the vehicles and people who had stopped to help, the tractor-trailer slammed into the already-mangled pickup before coming to rest on its right side in the median.

Hoelscher said the investigation into the pileup continued Wednesday afternoon.

Responding to the accidents were the Border Patrol, Sierra Blanca Fire Department, Texas Department of Transportation and Hudspeth County Sheriff’s Office.

Sheriff Arvin West of Hudspeth County said the pileup was one of the worst he’s seen since five people, including two children, were killed in July 2003. In that pileup, a tractor-trailer slammed into a car, causing a chain-reaction wreck in the line approaching the Border Patrol checkpoint.

For those who pull away from the pump with their gas tank caps on their trunk lids, Ford Motor Co. has begun to make good on a 2006 promise to get rid of the caps on its entire model lineup.Jettisoning the pesky caps will become most apparent in the new 2009 F-150 pickup truck, Ford’s top-selling vehicle, which was unveiled this week at the North American International Auto Show. It will hit showrooms in the fall.

The capless refueling system already is available on the 2008 Ford Explorer sport utility vehicle, and it is coming to the 2009 Flex crossover and Lincoln MKS luxury sedan, said Matt O’Leary, chief engineer on the pickup.

The system, which came from Ford’s NASCAR racing experience, first appeared on the 2003 Ford GT sports car.

It has two small spring-loaded tabs that pull back a flap inside the fuel filler neck as the nozzle hits them. When the nozzle is pulled out, the flap closes.

In addition to the convenience factor, the capless system also has environmental benefits, O’Leary said, by limiting the escape of gasoline vapors.

German car-maker BMW has unveiled its F1-08, hoping to achieve its first grand prix victory this season.

BMW driver Nick Heidfeld took the new vehicle for a drive inside the vast BMW Welt building in Munich, but the real race testing is still to come.

‘There isn’t a lot to tell you. It wasn’t a real test drive,’ he said after he took the F1-08 for a spin.

BMW Sauber ended 2007 as runners-up behind Ferrari, but only because McLaren was stripped of all its constructors’ points after a spying controversy.

But Ferrari and McLaren won every race between them during the 2007 season, something BMW hopes to change this year.