Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Car crashes off bridge, plunges 20 feet, killing 4

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. — A speeding car carrying four women veered out of control, smashed through a metal bridge railing, plunged 20 feet into a concrete wash and burst into flames, killing everyone, authorities said Friday.

The 1997 Toyota Camry was trying to pass a slower-moving car shortly after 8:30 p.m. Thursday on Fifth Street when it veered into oncoming traffic and plunged into the wash in an unincorporated county area, according to California Highway Patrol and San Bernardino County coroner's officials.

The driver and a passenger were tossed from the car, which caught fire.

Witnesses were unable to help.

"I heard the screaming and I started crying because you couldn't do anything," Rose Estrada of San Bernardino told the San Bernardino Sun (http://bit.ly/1fxnLUu ). "People started running back and forth."

Three women were pronounced dead at the scene and a fourth died at a hospital.

Coroner's officials identified three of them on Friday as Germany Brizick Lee Willis, 24, of Highland; Kristy Marie Orti-Medina, 36, of Highland and Joy Terri Doss, 24, of San Bernardino. Christine Medina of Bloomington told the Sun that Orti-Medina was her sister-in-law and that the four women in the car were cousins. CHP investigators will try to determine whether alcohol or drugs were involved in the crash.

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