The California Highway Patrol is investigating a fatal crash Monday morning on I-680 in the Concord area. (File)
A man and woman who died in the most recent fatal crash on a notorious East Bay highway were identified early Wednesday by authorities.
Virginia Lopez, 29, of El Sobrante, and Recadeo Valdez, 27, of Pittsburg, died in the June 30th crash on eastbound Highway 4 near the Bailey Road exit in Pittsburg. Both were ejected from a GMC pickup truck after colliding with a Volkswagen sedan, the California Highway Patrol said. The crash happened about 8:15 p.m.
They died after being rushed to a hospital.
The Volkswagen driver, that car’s only occupant, was not injured.
The deaths of Lopez and Valdez brings to six the number of people to die in fatal crashes on the highway in less than eight weeks. There have been four fatal crashes on the highway since May 9.
Overall, 10 people have died on the highway in 2023 in eight separate wrecks, according to totals kept by this news organization. Beginning on Nov. 16, 2022, when five people died in a wrong-way head-on collision on the highway, the highway has been the scene of 12 fatal crashes that have claimed 17 lives.
Forty-four people have died in 39 fatal crashes on the highway since the start of 2021.
Originally published at Rick Hurd