According to Deputy Michael Domingue, the Merced County Sheriff Coroner’s Office has named the drivers who died in a fiery accident on Interstate 5 last month as Juan Jose Cosio Gomez, 58, of San Jose and Kristopher Rose, 18, of Pleasant Hill.
At 12:51 a.m. on Oct. 30, the California Highway Patrol said they were called to the southbound lanes of I-5, north of Volta Road, for a report of a crossover head-on collision.
The California Highway Patrol (CHP) said it looked like a 2008 Honda Accord was going north in the lanes when, for no clear reason, it left the road and crossed the dirt median into the lanes going south.
The vehicle hit a 2017 Isuzu box truck head-on. The two vehicles came to a stop blocking the southbound lanes of I-5 and caught fire.
After the accident, both southbound lanes of I-5 were closed for just over an hour, and the number two traffic lane stayed closed until around 6:30 a.m.
The CHP says that both drivers were pronounced dead at the scene of the accident after firefighters put out the fires.
The police said it looked like both drivers were wearing seat belts at the time of the accident, and they are still looking into what caused it.
