Two dead, one hospitalized after car hits tree in Sacramento County’s Vineyard area
Two people were killed and a third was hospitalized with major injuries early Monday in a suspected drunk driving crash after a car hit a fence and a tree in the front yard of a home in Sacramento County’s Vineyard area.
The single-vehicle crash happened shortly after 4:15 a.m. on Kirkton Court near Vintage Park Drive, according to Officer Mark Leavitt, a spokesman for the California Highway Patrol’s South Sacramento office.
The woman driving the vehicle was pronounced dead at the scene, Leavitt said, and a man riding in the front passenger seat died at a hospital later.
Essence Joyce-Tena Ntchampo, 21, was the woman who died in the crash, and Trayvone Bou Winston, 33, of Vallejo was the passenger in the vehicle who died at the hospital, according to the Sacramento County Coroner’s Office. The CHP said Ntchampo was a Sacramento resident.
Ntchampo was driving a 2016 Hyundai Accent west on Vintage Park Drive and approaching Kirkton Court at a high rate of speed, according to a CHP news release issued Monday afternoon.
Ntchampo, for an unknown reason, swerved hard to the left. The CHP said the car went into a side skid and crossed over into the oncoming lane and sidewalk, before the car struck a wooden fence and then a tree in the front yard of the home on Kirkton Court.
A 29-year-old Sacramento man in the Hyundai’s right rear passenger seat was ejected from the vehicle, the CHP said. He suffered major injuries that were not life-threatening. Leavitt said his condition was stable and he is expected to survive.
The crash remains under investigation. The CHP said it is suspected that alcohol was a factor in the fatal crash.
This story was originally published August 29, 2022 at 8:34 AM.
