11 Killed in 3 Traffic Accidents in N. California, Central Valley

Eleven people have died in three holiday crashes in Northern California and the San Joaquin Valley.

Three people died early Friday and another two were seriously injured in a one-car crash north of Santa Cruz. A California Highway Patrol spokeswoman said the vehicle crashed near the intersection of California 236 and China Grade Road near Boulder Creek.

The cause of the accident was under investigation, and the identities of the victims were not released.

The spokeswoman said the two injured were airlifted to Stanford Medical Center.

California Department of Forestry officials said the crash sparked a small vegetation fire--though the blaze was contained at the scene.

In another accident, six people died late Thursday in a head-on collision on a lonely stretch of Interstate 5 that closed the northbound side of the freeway and tied up Fourth of July traffic for miles.

Three people suffered major injuries in the accident just north of Santa Nella in Merced County, according to the Central Valley Transportation Management Center.

The accident occurred just before midnight when a southbound car crossed the median and hit a northbound car. All five people in the northbound car died in the fiery crash, officials said.

Emergency dispatchers sent at least two helicopters and two ambulances to the site.

Northbound traffic was detoured east along California 152 to California 99, officials said. The interstate reopened at midmorning Friday.

Killed were Maria Romero, 29, and Jose Romero, 20, both from Reseda. The names of two middle-aged women and a man killed in the same car were not known. The crash killed a 19-year-old woman in the other car.

In another accident, two men died when their vehicle went out of control, crossed the center divider of U.S. 101 in Prunedale and was struck broadside, according to officials from the North Monterey County Fire Department.

The four-car crash at U.S. 101 and Reese Circle was reported Thursday afternoon, a fire spokesman said. One man was declared dead at the scene, and the other was pronounced dead on arrival at Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital, he said.

A passenger in another car was seriously injured.

Two more cars crashed after the first two collided, but the people in those vehicles refused medical treatment, the spokesman said.