4 killed, 4 injured in head-on crash in Aptos

APTOS, Calif. (KGO) -- There was a horrific crash scene in Aptos in Santa Cruz County Sunday night. Four young people between 16 and 22-years-old have died after a head-on collision.

CHP investigators say it appears drinking and reckless driving were factors in this terrifying tragedy. The Mercedes carrying the young people crashed into a Ford pickup truck Sunday night on Freedom Boulevard, close to Aptos High School. It doesn't appear that any students from Aptos were involved, but this crash took the lives of several young people.

Traffic accidents don't get much worse than this. Seven young people were riding in a Mercedes sedan just after 8 p.m. Sunday night on Freedom Boulevard when the driver swerved into oncoming traffic hitting a Ford F-150 pickup truck head on. Three people from the Mercedes died at the scene. Another died at the hospital. The three other passengers were taken to hospitals with life threatening injuries. Alcohol appears to be a factor. The CHP says broken glass and empty containers were found inside the Mercedes.

"We had a couple of witnesses reporting reckless driving. Things like excessive speed. Things like passing over double yellow lines. We had a witness say there were actually females out of the windows dancing and out of the moon roof dancing prior to the collision," said CHP Officer Bradley Sadek.

The driver of the pick-up truck, a 56-year-old man from Aptos, was taken to Valley Medical Center in San Jose with major injuries, but he's expected to recover. The four people in the Mercedes who died were identified as a 22-year-old man from Watsonville. An 18-year-old man also from Watsonville, a 19-year-old woman from Soquel and a 16-year-old girl whose information is not being released until her family is notified.

Investigators say no one in the Mercedes was wearing a seatbelt.

"The right front passenger looked like they were sitting on each other's laps. I don't know what the organization was like in the back seat but it's likely that was the case as well in the back seat," said Sadek.

The CHP says they hope to talk with some of the surviving victims including the driver of the pickup truck as they piece together this investigation.