Four young women, ages 12 to 24, and their parents were coming back from a Black Friday trip, that's when the accident happened. The 24-year-old died at the scene. The mother and another daughter were brought to Stanford Medical Center in very serious condition. A relative told ABC7 News that that daughter also died from her injuries.
"They wanted to go shopping for Black Friday," said family friend Bhavin Tandel. He says a father, mother, and four daughters were all coming back from a shopping trip in Gilroy at about 6:45 a.m. Friday.
The CHP says the gold Lexus SUV they were in rear-ended a CHP patrol car that had pulled over on the shoulder to help another vehicle near the Palo Alto Embarcadero exit. The SUV flipped over, scattering gifts all over the roadway.
"While the SUV was overturning, two parties were ejected out of the vehicle," CHP Ofc. Amelia Jack said. "One of the parties succumbed to their injuries here at the scene.
One of the four daughters, a 24-year-old, died at the scene. An uncle, Kandilal Ghandi, told ABC7 that she had been shopping for her wedding in India next month. He says the other daughter who was brought to Stanford also died.
"Because they were going to go to India for the marriage of the first one Nisha," Ghandi said. "She passed away, later on the second one passed away."
Tandel adds, "It was very shocking to me and then at our house we got a bunch of calls."
Four of the family members in the SUV were wearing seatbelts at the time. According to the CHP, the two daughters who died were not.
SKY7 HD was over the massive traffic jam on Highway 101 Friday morning. Traffic was snarled for about six hours while officers investigated the crash.
Francisco Obado says a seven minute trip to work took him about 40 minutes, "Getting to my location to where I do business with, it just, traffic was a nightmare."
The family is living a nightmare. The mother is still at Stanford hospital in very serious condition. The father and two other daughters are at Valley Medical Center in San Jose. Their conditions are unknown.
The CHP officer was not seriously injured. The cause of the accident is still under investigation.
