Two children were among four people killed when a car collided with a minivan on a rural Northern California highway, authorities said.
The wreck came as a Toyota Prius crossed the center line on Highway 50 near Placerville on Saturday night and struck a Toyota Sienna minivan "broadside," said California Highway Patrol spokesman Officer John Frizzell. The crash also left five people injured.
Three people in the Prius — a 39-year-old man driving the car, a woman and a child — were killed in the crash. Another child in the car suffered moderate injuries. The family in the Prius was from Oakland.
Of the five people in the minivan, a 4-year-old girl was killed. The four others — the 35-year-old female driver, a 51-year-old man and two 1-year-olds suffered minor to moderate injuries..
Late Sunday, the El Dorado County Sheriff's Department Deputies identified the dead inside the Prius as Sheng Kun Su, 38, his 39-year-old wife Shue Zhen Zhao and their 8-year-old son Shawn Su. Another Su child, 10-year-old Elly Su, survived. Elly Su has been released from the hospital to the care of other Bay Area family members, according to reports.
The people in the minivan are from Pollock Pines. The sheriff's said 4-year-old Nora Elizabeth was killed. The four others were identified as 35-year-old Danielle Marie Temple who was driving; Will John Temple, 51, and two 1-year-old twins, John Maxwell and John James Temple.
Weather conditions at the time of the crash were clear.
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"We don't know what caused the Prius to cross into oncoming traffic," Frizzell said Sunday. "There's an infinite number of possibilities."
Investigators have pulled computers from both vehicles that would indicate how fast they were going at the time of the crash, but collecting that information would probably take days, Frizzell said.
The highway where the crash took place is just outside of Placerville, about 45 miles east of Sacramento. The highway has two lanes, with minor to moderate curves, and with a speed limit of 65 miles per hour, Frizzell said.
