Fiery highway crash in Calif. kills 6, including member of university cross country team

Fiery California highway crash kills 6

BISHOP, Calif. — The California Highway Patrol says an SUV swerved into a highway median in the eastern Sierra Nevada and collided with two vehicles, killing six people, including a member of a university cross country team.

CHP Officer Dennis Cleland says the southbound SUV drifted off the shoulder then traveled into the center median Monday night where it struck a van carrying members of California Baptist University’s cross country team and burst into flames.

Two other university vans were not struck in the crash on U.S. Highway 395 near the town of Bishop, but a vehicle behind one of the vans crashed into the burning SUV.

Cleland says five of the dead were in the SUV.

A call to a spokeswoman for the university in Riverside was not returned.