2 Southern California crashes claim 5 lives each

Associated Press

IRVINE, Calif.

A pair of deadly nighttime crashes only hours apart in Southern California each killed five people, including a group of teenagers returning from an amusement park who were burned beyond recognition, officials said Saturday.

The 16-year-old driver was the lone survivor of the crash of a BMW sedan at 2:15 a.m. Saturday carrying six teens returning from the Knott’s Berry Farm amusement park in Buena Park, in its popular October guise as “Knott’s Scary Farm,” authorities said.

The car flew off Interstate 5 in Irvine, crashed and caught fire, killing three teenage boys and two teenage girls, Orange County Fire Authority Capt. Steve Concialdi said.

About five hours earlier Friday night, three vehicles collided on an isolated two-lane road on the edge of Chino, a city east of Los Angeles in San Bernardino County. Authorities were working to identify the dead and determine the cause Saturday afternoon, police spokeswoman Monica Gutierrez said.

The lone survivor of that crash — the driver of a Honda Civic — was released from the hospital, Gutierrez said. The dead included four in a Chevrolet truck and one in a Honda Accord.