The two drivers involved in a terrible, fire-filled accident on Interstate 5 in Merced County have been named by the police.
They were Juan Jose Cosio Gomez, 58, from San Jose and Kristopher Rose, 18 years old, from Pleasant Hill, according to the Merced County Sheriff Coroner’s Office. Both drivers were tragically killed in the accident early in the morning on October 30.
The California Highway Patrol (CHP) said that at 12:51 a.m., they were called to the southbound lanes of I-5 near Volta Road for a report of a head-on accident.
Based on the CHP’s analysis, it looks like a 2008 Honda Accord that was going north suddenly went off the road for unknown reasons. The car went across the dirt median and into the southbound lanes, where it hit a 2017 Isuzu box truck head-on.
The collision was very bad, and both cars stopped in the middle of the southbound lanes of I-5. Both the Honda Accord and the Isuzu truck caught fire after the accident, which shut down both southbound lanes of the road for just over an hour.
Firefighters got to the scene quickly and put out the flames, but both drivers were tragically declared dead at the scene.
Officers from the California Highway Patrol and the fire department worked to clear the area, but one southbound lane stayed closed until around 6:30 a.m. Both cars were wearing seat belts at the time of the accident, according to the police.
The cause of the accident is still being looked into, and all the things that could have led to this terrible event are being considered.
A terrible accident happened on Interstate 5 that killed one person. Authorities are still looking into what happened to figure out what caused the accident.
Families, friends, and people in the community who were touched by the terrible loss are waiting for more information while the police look for answers.
