Pickup Truck Plunges Into festival, Kills 4

San Diego, California

A pickup truck driven by a member of the US Navy plunged off a San Diego bridge killing four people and injuring nine at a festival below. He is currently facing DUI and vehicular manslaughter charges.

According to California Highway Patrol Officer Jake Sanchez, Richard Anthony Sepolio, 25, was alone in the truck when he lost control. This caused the pickup to fall 60 feet into a vendor’s booth at Chicano Park on Saturday afternoon. Sepolio was stationed at the naval base on Coronado Island across the bay from San Diego.

Sepolio stayed hospitalized Sunday with major injuries. His rank not immediately made available.

The people who were killed were Francine Denise Jimenez, 46, and Andre Christopher Banks, 49, both from Hacienda Heights, Los Angeles; and Annamarie Contreras, 50, and Cruz Elias Contreras, 52, of Chandler, Arizona, the San Diego County Medical Examiner said.

The truck crushed four people in the booth, witnesses said.

Furthermore, the city’s Fire-Rescue Department spokesman Lee Swanson said that eight people on the ground were hurt. Seven people had minor to moderate injuries while one suffered serious trauma.

The GMC pickup truck with Texas license plates landed on a vendor’s booth put up for La Raza Run. The crash occurred a few steps away from a stage where a rockabilly band was performing.

On Sunday, mourners assembled at the park to lay flowers and candles and offer prayers for the victims.

Tina Camarillo and her daughter occupied the booth next to the one that was hit, she told the San Diego Union-Tribune.

She said that the truck fell and all she saw was darkness. The glass blew and the canopy fell on her head. Her daughter was running to get her mom.

Iris Jimenez, 29, said she got out of the way just in time. She told the newspaper that if she hadn’t run when she saw the truck coming at her, she would be dead. Pedro Sanchez, Jimenez’s companion, was one of many men who hurried to lift the truck off the victims.

The park is located below the bridge in a mainly Hispanic community in central San Diego.

The post Pickup Truck Plunges Into festival, Kills 4 appeared first on Newsline.