Stolen car speeds head-on into big rig, killing man and woman, California cops say
A Northern California high-speed chase ended in two deaths Thursday when a man driving a stolen vehicle crashed head-on into a big-rig truck, according to state and local authorities.
The 21-year-old driver was in a stolen Honda headed east on Highway 20 outside Colusa when an off-duty officer spotted the car and alerted the Colusa County Sheriff’s Office and Colusa police, who were soon trailing the car near Highway 45, the California Highway Patrol Yuba-Sutter Office said in a Facebook post on the incident.
The pursuit started shortly after 8 a.m. and went from Colusa County, past the town of Meridian and into Sutter County, according to the Colusa County Sheriff’s Office.
The driver started speeding at more than 100 mph when he realized he was being chased, according to the Highway Patrol.
Eventually, the driver tried to pass other cars on the Sutter Bypass bridge and moved into a lane of oncoming traffic, where he “ultimately crashed head-on with a big rig truck,” CHP officers said.
The driver and passenger, a 25-year-old woman, were fatally injured, authorities said.
The CHP identified the driver as Jared Andrew Russell and the passenger as Kelli Christine Zanon, both of Yuba City, CBS13 reports.
The big-rig truck driver wasn’t hurt, the CHP said.
On Thursday morning, CHP officers had warned in a Facebook post that Highway 20 westbound at West Butte Road and eastbound at Tarke Road would “be closed for multiple hours as officers investigate a major traffic collision.”
By around 3 p.m., the road reopened, according to the CHP.
Photos that the Highway Patrol shared from the crash show the Honda with its front and top destroyed.
This story was originally published August 1, 2019 at 4:37 PM with the headline "Stolen car speeds head-on into big rig, killing man and woman, California cops say."
