Two people were killed when a speeding car slammed into a home in Modesto, California. Firefighters who responded found that the vehicle had ended up inside the house, and although they managed to contain the resulting fire to the car itself, they discovered two people dead inside the property, leaving an active scene that was sealed off for much of the day.
According to the California Highway Patrol, the gray car had been speeding before the crash. The driver continued along Standiford Avenue and McHenry before the vehicle ran onto Robin Hood Drive, where it left the road and crashed into the home, coming to rest inside the building after smashing through the front of the property.
In the immediate aftermath it was unclear exactly who had been killed. What investigators did establish was that the people who died were not the homeowner, who was away at the time, but others who had been inside the property when the car struck it with such force in that part of the house.
At least one of those killed was a house sitter who had been staying at the home while its owners were away, and who was in the bedroom when the car came through. Authorities said they were still working to formally confirm the identities of the two people who lost their lives in the crash.
The Highway Patrol identified the driver as 20-year-old Zacharia Knobel of Modesto. He was arrested at the scene and booked into the Stanislaus County jail as the investigation got under way, with officers treating the crash as the central focus of their inquiries through the day.
A female passenger who had been inside the car was taken to the hospital after the crash. According to the account given at the scene, she was later released and handed into the care of her mother, having survived the collision that killed two people inside the home.
Neighbors said the home had been hit before, and protective measures had been put in place at the property, including cement bollards and boulders near the front of the house, a sign that residents had already been worried about vehicles leaving the road at that spot. The owners were said to be away on a trip and heading back after being told what had happened, while the Highway Patrol continued its investigation at what remained an early and active scene.