7 Killed in Head-On Collision on Highway 25

Seven people were killed early Saturday in a head-on collision on state Highway 25 near Gilroy, the California Highway Patrol said.

There were no survivors.

A southbound Honda Accord apparently crossed into oncoming traffic and hit a northbound Ford Ranger pickup truck about 4:20 a.m., CHP dispatcher Cindy Dichiara said.

The two-lane highway about 75 miles south of San Francisco has no median at that point. All seven people died at the scene.

The San Benito County Sheriff’s office said the pickup truck driver and the four passengers all lived in Gilroy.

The car’s driver and his passenger were both from Los Banos.

Both vehicles were headed toward their occupants’ homes, but investigators don’t know where either was coming from, said Sgt. Wes Walker of the sheriff’s department.

The people inside the pickup truck were not wearing seat belts, CHP Officer Adam Rodriguez said. Two were ejected, and one was partially ejected. “Had they been wearing their seat belts, they obviously would have stayed within the vehicle,” Rodriguez said. “Whether they would have survived is unknown.”

It wasn’t immediately known if the men in the car wore seat belts.

Police don’t yet know if alcohol, drugs or fatigue was a factor in the accident.

A man who had been driving behind the Honda told police he made several attempts to get it back onto the right side of the road by flashing his headlights. “And apparently for some unknown reason at this time, we don’t know why, the Honda driver never went back to the correct side of the road,” Rodriguez said.