CONCORD — A 9-year-old girl died and four other people were hospitalized with major injuries early Sunday after a car ran off a freeway where it split with a highway, the California Highway Patrol said.
The crash happened about 5:15 a.m. on northbound Interstate 680 at the state Highway 242 split, CHP spokesperson Officer Adam Lane said.
Officers and emergency personnel arrived to find a gray Mazda CX-9 on its roof and more than one person ejected and on the ground, Lane said. He added that the driver of the Mazda fled the scene.
According to Lane, the Mazda left the roadway where I-680 and Highway 242 begin to divide. It went through the dirt median that separated them and overturned more than one time.
Authorities pronounced the 9-year-old dead at the scene. The four other passengers who were injured all were female, the agency said. Most of the occupants in the car were not wearing seat belts.
Lane said the driver of the Mazda as a man in his 30s who ran from the scene. No other detailed subscription was available.
The CHP still was probing the crash late Sunday morning and urged anyone who may have been the area at the time it happened to contact the agency’s Contra Costa division at 320investigations@chp.ca.gov or by calling 925-646-4980.
Please check back for updates.
Source: www.mercurynews.com