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The Livermore community has been reeling after four members of a local family died over the weekend in a horrific car crash in Manteca that has also left three young surviving passengers hospitalized, including two who were rescued from the burning minivan by passersby.
Friends and family first identified the husband and wife who were killed along with their preteen and infant sons on GoFundMe pages to support the survivors, and the San Joaquin County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed the formal identifications to Livermore Vine late Wednesday afternoon.
The decedents were Livermore residents Arriaga Bonifacio Negrete, 44; Liliana Guerrero Mendoza, 40; Jorge Negrete Guerrero, 12; and David Negrete Guerrero, 4 months old, according to the coroner’s office.
“The loss of Bonifacio, Liliana, Jorge, and David has left us shattered, with unimaginable pain and uncertainty about the future. As family and friends, we are struggling to come to terms with this devastating loss,” family wrote in organizing a GoFundMe. “Bonifacio and Liliana had cherished dreams for the future, especially after the recent addition of their precious baby David. Their plans to move into a larger home with their growing family were abruptly cut short by this tragedy.”
Livermore school officials addressed the situation and offered support at the respective campuses where the four school-aged children in the family attended, according to district officials.
“It is with a heavy heart that I share the devastating loss of several members of one of our Junction TK-8 families,” Jeannette Garza, principal of Jorge’s school, wrote in an email to the Junction community on Monday.
“I partnered with our crisis team lead to inform seventh grade students of the loss of their classmate earlier today; we have been able to provide immediate grief support to students who need it. We will also be meeting with 1st and 3rd grade classes to let them know that one of their classmates was in an accident and is in the hospital,” Garza said.
“Our crisis team, counselors, and administrators will continue to provide ongoing resources to students to mourn and process their grief in safe, supportive, and professionally staffed environments,” she added.
The family was on their way back home passing through Manteca on Saturday night (April 13) after attending a quinceañera in Modesto that day, according to a GoFundMe organizer.
According to the CHP Stockton area office, the group of seven people were traveling in a 2011 Toyota Sienna minivan westbound on Highway 120 east of the Van Ryn Avenue interchange in Manteca just after 10 p.m. in damp conditions.
The father behind the wheel lost control for unknown reasons, and the minivan struck the center median, continued moving westbound in the grass area between the two sides of the highway and ultimately became airborne while traversing the Van Ryn Avenue undercrossing, according to the CHP. The minivan then struck the overpass, overturned and caught fire.
Bystanders who witnessed the crash pulled four of the juvenile passengers from the fiery wreckage, two of whom survived (a 14-year-old girl and a 9-year-old boy) while the two others were pronounced dead at the scene, 12-year-old Jorge and a 4-month-old David, according to authorities.
The father Negrete and mother Guerrero Mendoza, who was a passenger, also died at the scene of the crash. The woman was not wearing her seat belt at the time, according to the CHP.
A 6-year-old sister also survived the crash and was transported to UC Davis Medical Center with major injuries, according to the CHP. The other two injured siblings were taken to area hospitals as well.
The cause of the crash remains under investigation, according to the CHP, noting that it was not yet known whether drugs or alcohol were factors.
In the days after the devastating wreck, two GoFundMe campaigns began to make the rounds on Livermore social media channels – the validity of one was soon publicly questioned, although its organizer later said he was authorized by a family member and now was working to get the proceeds of the two accounts combined into one. The efforts in total have raised more than $20,000 to date.