CHP responded to the scene just east of the junction at Loveridge Road at 12:11 a.m., saying that a wrong-way driver was going eastbound in westbound lanes when they collided head-on with another car.
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"Our officers, because they happened to be relatively close in the area, they were on scene we believe within seconds of the crash, less than a minute, stabilizing," CHP Officer Andrew Barklay said.
CHP confirms that three children and one adult were killed in a white Hyundai, going the wrong direction. The driver they hit was in an SUV going the right direction, who also died in the crash.
Both cars involved appeared to be completely mangled.
The westbound Highway 4 lanes were shut down but as of 4 a.m. all the lanes are back open.
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Investigators are still searching for answers and were not able to say where the wrong-way driver got on the highway.
"Obviously we have a lot of questions right now, how the vehicle got on the road, the question we've received a lot is were drugs and alcohol involved? We don't know that yet, that's part of our ongoing investigation," Officer Barklay said.
Because it was so late at night with few vehicles on the road at the time, CHP is asking that anyone who may have witnessed the crash to come forward as they work to piece together what happened.
"Regardless of how small or insignificant you might think that information is, to us, it could provide a wealth of information," Officer Barklay said.
The names of the victims have not been released yet, and it is still unclear what the relationship was between the wrong-way driver and the children in the car.
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MORE: Deadly crash involving pedestrian on Hwy 4 near Concord causes major East Bay backup, CHP says
This collision was less than 24 hours after a deadly crash in the same area that shut down Highway 4 and caused a large traffic backup.
If you have any information about what happened, you are asked to call CHP Contra Costa.