Nine people, including seven children, were killed in a horrific crash on a rural California highway, officials said.
The head-on collision occurred around 8 p.m. on New Year’s Day on Highway 33, about 90 minutes north of Bakersfield, when the driver of a 2013 Dodge apparently turned off the road, Officer Rory Marks told the Los Angeles Times.
The motorist, a 28-year-old man, then corrected too much – and ended up in a northern Ford with seven children and an adult, authorities said.
The impact set the Ford on fire. All victims were declared dead on the spot and had yet to be identified on Saturday.
“We have no witnesses to it, except the people who encountered it,” Marks told the newspaper. “We seek help if anyone knows anything.”
The cause of the crash is under investigation.