The State - News from Aug. 10, 1987

A car carrying five family members plunged into a Sacramento River slough from a raised drawbridge, killing two adults and two children trapped inside the submerged vehicle, authorities reported. A 12-year-old boy survived after he was thrown from the station wagon as it fell from the bridge spanning Three Mile Slough on California 160 near Rio Vista. Rio Vista police said the victims were family members from Pittsburg, Calif., but he withheld their identities pending notification of kin. Police said the car was on the bridge when an operator raised the span to allow a boat to pass through the slough. “The span went up with the car on it,” said Rio Vista police Investigator Lee Patterson. “Either the driver backed up, off of it, and came down on the tailgate and dropped into the water or else the car was halfway on (the bridge)--and when bridge got higher, it dropped the car.”