Last Updated on May 28, 2019 by CCAR Staff
A family of four, including two children, were killed Sunday night in a single-car crash on Highway 152 east of San Luis Reservoir, authorities said.
The car, a 2017 Nissan Altima, was eastbound on Highway 152 around 8:30 p.m., said the California Highway Patrol. As it approached Santa Nella Boulevard (Highway 33), it crossed the median into the westbound lanes, then went across a dirt shoulder and hit a tree.
The impact reportedly broke the car into two pieces.
All four people in the car were killed. The Merced County Sheriff’s Department identified the deceased as Samuel Soto, 40, his two sons Nicolas Soto, 9, Diego Soto, 2, and Alondra Lara-Montes, 22, all of Pomona, according to the Fresno Bee.
Lara-Montes’ parents and siblings were driving in a separate car behind them, and witnessed the dramatic crash, according to a GoFundMe page set up to assist with funeral expenses.
“On Sunday night May 26, 2019 this memorial weekend, we lost a father, a mother, two children and one that was on the way,” said a relative on the GoFundMe page.
The CHP initially said all had been wearing seatbelts, but a revised statement said Lara-Montes — who was pregnant — was not belted. The younger boy, Diego Soto, was in a car seat.
That stretch of Highway 152, about two miles east of Interstate 5, is two lanes in each direction, divided by a dirt median without a barrier. The speed limit is 65 mph.
The Daily Bulletin contributed to this story.
