Fleeing Driver Blamed For Deadly Oakland Crash
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) - The driver of a BMW M6 is in custody on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter and evading arrest following a police chase that ended in a crash that killed a woman in East Oakland late Thursday night, authorities said.
The incident began about 11:20 p.m. Thursday when California Highway Patrol officers who were patrolling East Oakland tried to stop the driver of the 2007 BMW M6 on 90th Avenue near Bancroft Avenue because he was speeding, CHP Officer Sam Morgan said.
Morgan said the driver initially yielded and pulled over, but when two CHP officers got out of their patrol car and tried to contact the driver and his passenger, the driver sped away.
The officers briefly lost sight of the BMW but then noticed that it crashed nearby into a 2001 Lincoln Continental carrying five people, Morgan said.
A woman who was sitting in the Continental's center rear seat was killed in the crash and three other passengers suffered moderate to major injuries and were taken to Highland Hospital in Oakland and Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley for treatment, according to Morgan.
He said the driver of the Continental did not appear to be injured.
The five people in the car were from Oakland and Costa Mesa, Morgan said.
The BMW driver and his passenger fled the scene but the driver, whose name has not yet been released, was arrested nearby on Las Vegas Avenue near Golf Course Road. The passenger was still at large, Morgan said.
He said authorities would like to interview the passenger so that they can get more information about the incident.
"We don't know if the driver and the passenger were engaged in illegal activity or if they were just nervous," Morgan said.
He added, "People who are innocent usually don't flee the scene."
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