Fiery Crash in Valinda Leaves Two Dead

Two cars were engulfed in flames after a crash in Valinda Sunday afternoon. 

The crash happened at around 5:45 p.m. near East Temple Avenue and Mangate Avenue in Valinda. 

“I just heard the noise, the sound and when I came out the cars were on fire,” Jorge Orozco, a resident, said. 

Orozco lives around the corner from where the cars crashed. 

“My neighbors were already there helping them. They ran out and they pulled some people out of the burning car,” Orozco said.  “They dragged the lady out. She was like knocked out.”

The California Highway Patrol says one car was traveling east on Temple Avenue in the city of Valinda, the other traveling west when they both collided.

It is not clear how or why this happened but the result was catastrophic.

“At some point both vehicles were involved in a collision at which time they both caught fire,” Sergeant Mark Thomas Shammer with CHP Baldwin Park said. 

The driver and sole occupant of the vehicle going eastbound died at the scene.

“A driver, three passengers were extricated from the second vehicle and transported to Pomona Valley Medical Center with injuries ranging from major to moderate,” Shaffer said. 

Unfortunately one of the passengers in that vehicle, a 50-year-old woman, later died at the hospital.

CHP says both vehicles were burned so badly they couldn’t even definitively determine the make and model.

“We believe one is a Dodge Avenger and the other is a Honda, I believe Civic,” Shaffer said. 

Residents say drivers go way too fast on this street and believe speed was likely a factor in this violent collision.

“People go by here at least 90 sometimes 80 mph,” Diane Keuter, a resident, said.

“One of the girls that came out of the car said the other car was going fast but that’s all she remembers,” Orozco said.