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89.Trio KPCC
89.Trio KPCC
AP & KPCC
Update Trio:29 p.m. A pair of deadly nighttime crashes only hours apart in Southern California each killed five people, including a group of teenagers returning from an amusement park who were burned beyond recognition, officials said Saturday.
The 16-year-old driver was the lone survivor of the crash of a BMW sedan at Two:15 a.m. Saturday carrying six teenagers returning from Knott’s Berry Farm amusement park in Buena Vista, in its popular October guise as "Knott’s Scary Farm," authorities said.
The car flew off Interstate five in Irvine, crashed and caught fire, killing three teenage boys and two teenage chicks, Orange County Fire Authority Capt. Steve Concialdi said. The white sedan was flattened on top and covered with burn marks as it was towed from the scene.
"This is a horrific accident," Concialdi said.
Authorities had not yet identified the teenagers, but the three boys all played for the same soccer team, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The boys failed to demonstrate up for their eight a.m. game for the elite 14- and 15-year-old players of the Mission Viejo Soccer Club, and Coach Billy McNicol said he got a call afterward from a family member that all three had been killed.
"These are good boys," he told the Times, his voice cracking. "We are devastated. Just devastated."
About five hours earlier on Friday night, three vehicles collided on an isolated two-lane road on the edge of Chino, a city east of Los Angeles in San Bernardino County. Authorities were working to identify the dead and determine the cause Saturday afternoon, police spokeswoman Monica Gutierrez said.
The lone survivor of that three-vehicle crash — the driver of a Honda Civic —was released from the hospital, Gutierrez said. The dead included four in a Chevy truck and one in a Honda Accord.
The Irvine crash, whose cause was under investigation, also sparked a quarter-acre brush fire that took about thirty minutes to extinguish, Concialdi said.
The 16-year-old driver was in serious condition with a head injury, Concialdi said.
In California, drivers under eighteen may not drive inbetween eleven p.m. and five a.m. and cannot have passengers under twenty years old in the car unless a licensed driver over twenty five is in the vehicle.
There were no adults in the car, but authorities had not filed charges because investigators were still talking to parents, California Highway Patrol Officer Florentino Olivera said.
"They are so distraught it is taking time," he said.
Officials investigating the crash shut down three lanes of southbound Interstate five and a transition road for most of the day Saturday.
Ten:30 a.m. Late night Irvine car accident kills Five, sends sixth to hospital
A fatal accident on the southbound five Freeway early Saturday morning in Irvine killed five people, who were burned in the car, and sent a sixth to the hospital, Orange County Fire Authority Captain Steve Concialdi tells KPCC.
The accident happened around Two:15 a.m. Saturday morning, according to Concialdi. A four-door sedan was found at the scene on fire, along with a quarter-acre brush fire. The five who were killed were burned beyond recognition in the car.
A sixth patient was transported to Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo with a head injury, Concialdi said. He was listed in serious condition.
Concialdi called it "an utterly tragic accident." The investigation into the crash is ongoing, Concialdi said, and traffic remained backed up on the southbound five on Saturday morning.
— KPCC staff with Ashley Bailey
This story has been updated.
With contributions from Ashley Bailey and KPCC staff
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