Car Crash and Shooting
This report from KRON4 is slightly odd. It makes it sound like the police think they know who one of the victims is, but aren’t entirely sure yet. I’ll have an update if they determine any of the victims from this report are Berkeley students. Tragic:
Three people, possibly UC Berekeley students are dead after a major crash that shut down Interstate 80 for more than seven hours Saturday morning. Now the CHP is looking for witnesses to the crash, which happened on the eastbound side of the freeway just past the Ashby exit. Witnesses tell KRON 4’s April Cummings they heard a huge explosion from the crash. Investigators say someone may have cut off a Chevy Camaro which then hit a big rig. The truck caught fire and crossed the median crashing into at least two oncoming cars. All three fatalities happened inside one of the oncoming vehicles. The coroner says it may take five days to make a positive identification of the people who were killed. There are two men and a woman. One may be a foreign exchange student. It will take dental records before authorities are certain about who was killed. Investigators would like to find the driver who may have cut off the Camaro causing the initial accident. The truck driver remains in the hospital with moderate injuries.
I also just received word about a shooting that occurred in front of one of the units. If anyone witnessed that or has any information, please e-mail us at calstuff [at] gmail.com. I will update about that tomorrow as well.
That sounds about accurate of what I saw, I didn’t see the accident occur, but I saw the aftermath and it was horrible. I was running along the fwy on the bay trail, and it was one of the most horrible accidents Ive seen before, cars cut in half literally…not exactly what I thought I had in store for my morning run. After seeing that, kinda makes you jump back and say…oh shoot that could happen to anyone including me…
Comment by Chris C — July 17, 2005 @ 7:51 am
Nothing odd about that story at all, just sad. Police already are pretty sure who the people were but by policy make sure they have a positive ID before releasing names.
Likely police found the students unburnt IDs in the wreeckage to determine they are UCB folks. That KRON found it necessary to mention positive ID, implies that the bodies are as ravaged as the cars. Very sad indeed, but unfortunately not odd or uncommon.
Comment by Anonymous — July 17, 2005 @ 12:13 pm
I just wish newspapers would provide more information in situations like that to the readers. Like did they find ID’s at the scene, or were the people wearing Berkeley clothing, or did they have a Cal bumpersticker on their car?
Instead of just saying that they are “possibly UC Berkeley” students, give your readers the information that allowed you to make that determination, and then the reader can weigh how likely a situation it is that they are from Berkeley.
Comment by Andy R. — July 17, 2005 @ 1:28 pm
And the good news from Berkeley just keeps on coming…
Comment by Bhanu Singh — July 17, 2005 @ 1:53 pm