Sisters Killed When Car Is Rear-Ended

Two sisters who had just witnessed their mother give birth to twins were killed in a fiery collision after their car was rear-ended by a suspected drunken driver, authorities said Sunday.

About 8:50 p.m. Saturday, Thomas Romero and his three daughters, all of Lucerne Valley, were stopped at a red light on eastbound California 18 at Rancherias Road when a 1997 Mercedes-Benz E320 failed to stop, driving into the back of Romero’s 1983 Chevrolet Malibu, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said.

The Chevrolet caught fire. Romero escaped with Jennifer, 16, who was sitting in the front passenger seat, but the fire kept him from rescuing his two daughters in the back seat--Jessica, 10, and Jackie, 14--who died in the fire.

“The flames were too intense for him to get the other two out of the car,” Sheriff’s Sgt. Mark Taylor said.

The family was returning from a hospital, where Romero’s wife had just given birth to twins, sheriff’s spokeswoman Jenny Risley said.

On Sunday, people left flowers at the scene of the crash.

The driver of the Mercedes, John Edwin Newman, 46, of Apple Valley, was arrested on suspicion of felony drunk driving and vehicular manslaughter. He was booked at the sheriff’s station in Victorville, where he was being held in lieu of $500,000 bail.

Newman was arrested twice for driving under the influence in 1992, Risley said.