Vehicle in canal kills 3

A crash at the T-intersection of Jersey and 13th avenues in rural Kings County claimed at least three lives this morning, when a small black compact car crashed into a deep canal running alongside the road.

Little information is currently available about the crash, as Kings County Sheriff's Department officials were very protective of the scene, keeping bystanders at a short distance from the wreckage.

Three bodies were pulled from the vehicle and may have included two adults and a child, according to unconfirmed reports.

It is possible that the vehicle was traveling southbound on 13th Avenue, approaching the T-section with Jersey Avenue, when the driver attempted to turn too quickly and the car flew over the raised dirt hill surrounding the canal.

Officials, however, could not corroborate this theory earlier today.

Two men with the Sheriff's Department Water Rescue Dive Team were in the water assisting as California Highway Patrol officers, Kings County firefighters and Sheriff's deputies attempted to make sense of the scene and extract the vehicle from the deep water.

The crash was reported just before 7 this morning, with officials still on the scene three hours later.

Among the officials present was Assistant Sheriff Randy Montejano, apparently leading the operation, although he would not make any comment at the scene regarding the investigation.

This is the third canal-related crash resulting in multiple fatalities to occur in Kings County in less than a year. In November, seven people were killed when a family heading home from a birthday party in the Monterey Bay area overturned in a canal south of Corcoran. Three months later, in February, four people died when the driver of a GMC Denali traveling at high speed lost control and drove into a canal, smashing into the far embankment.

The reporter can be reached at 583-2425.

(June 10, 2008)