Van Crash, Hit-Run Accident Claim 6 : Highways: Family of 3 are killed crossing Otay Mesa Road. Three die when van careens off I-15 early Saturday; three passengers injured.

Six people have died on San Diego County highways, including three Yucca Valley men returning from a trip to Baja California and a family from Mexico trying to enter the United States illegally, a California Highway Patrol spokesman reported Saturday.

Three young men died when the van in which they were riding drove off Interstate 15 and down an embankment, becoming airborne before landing upside down on Country Club Lane in Escondido.

According to a CHP investigator, the van carrying six Yucca Valley men was northbound on I-15 about 5:30 a.m. Saturday when the driver apparently fell asleep and lost control.

The three others in the van were injured; none of the six was wearing seat belts.

The three dead men were identified by the medical examiner’s office as Billy Voge, Errick McKinley and Richard Ginez, all 21 and all of the Yucca Valley area.

The three injured men are all in their 20s and from Yucca Valley. Matt Reyes, in stable condition with internal injuries, and Robert Gillespie, in stable condition with a concussion, are both at Palomar Memorial Hospital in Escondido.

Steve Stinson, 20, was listed in critical condition with multiple contusions at Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla.

The possibility that the fatal accident was alcohol-related is being investigated, a CHP spokesman said.

In another accident, three members of a family from Guererro, Mexico, died about 8:30 p.m. Friday when they were struck by one or more cars on Otay Mesa Road east of the Otay Mesa border crossing.

The dead were identified by the county medical examiner’s office as Atolinar Gandaria Antovnez, about 17; his father Aleuterio Castro Gandaria, about 40, and his mother, Maria DeCarmen Antovnez, 35.

The family apparently was attempting to evade immigration officers and enter the United States illegally, a San Diego police spokesman said.

Witnesses said that the teen-age youth was struck by a car, which stopped. He was then struck by one or more vehicles that continued on without stopping.