MANTECA, Calif. — The University of California, Davis, confirmed Monday that three of the four people killed in a chain reaction crash outside of Manteca Friday morning were students.
The university identified them as: Minkyu Geon of Hong Kong, Margarette Guinto Ventura of Virginia Beach, and Codi Orland Mateo of Pasco, Washington.
Geon was a junior majoring in electrical engineering, Ventura was a sophomore majoring in biological sciences and Mateo was a senior majoring in neurobiology, physiology, and behavior.
“We are absolutely devastated and struggling to come to terms with such immense loss,” said Chancellor Gary S. May. “On behalf of the UC Davis community, we send our condolences to the family, friends and others who knew and loved them. Our Aggie family shares deeply in your pain and loss.”
No further details are available about the accident but here’s what we know so far, according to CHP.
A Honda Accord was going north on Highway 99 south of French Camp Road when it crashed into a U-Haul towing a flatbed trailer.
The U-Haul then hit a tractor-trailer, and the driver of the Accord made a U-turn and started driving south in northbound lanes.
The driver of the Accord was still going the wrong way on the highway north of Lathrop Road when they crashed into a Subaru Impreza. The driver of the Honda died.
The Subaru veered into another lane where it side-swiped a GMC Denali towing a trailer before being hit head-on by a Chevrolet Suburban. All three people in the Subaru were killed.
Based on the information CHP and UC Davis provided, the three people killed in the Subaru are the UC Davis students.
CHP says it believes the driver of the Accord and Suburban were driving under the influence of alcohol at the time of the crash. The identity of the fourth person killed in the crash – the driver of the Accord – hasn’t been released.
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