Two boys killed in a street-racing crash while on their way home from school in Riverside County have been identified, coroner records showed Wednesday.
Dominic and Antonio Gonzalez died after sustaining injuries on the road in the 21000 block of Oakwood Street in Perris Tuesday evening, according to the Riverside County Sheriff-Coroner’s website.
Their family said the siblings, 6 and 8 years old, had just been picked up from school by their 20-year-old brother when one of two drivers who were racing hit their car.
The older brother sustained minor to moderate injuries, officials said. The boys were pronounced dead at a Riverside University Health System medical center, according to the coroner’s website. The website listed Dominic’s age as 6 and Antonio’s age as 7.
“They had their whole lives ahead of them… They were barely coming home from school, literally a street away,” the boys’ sister, Lola Gonzalez, told KTLA. “It was just right there. They were almost home.”
The driver of a Honda Accord was traveling on the wrong side of Oakwood Street while illegally racing with someone in a Nissan Altima around 5:40 p.m., California Highway Patrol Officer Dan Olivas said on Tuesday.
As the two came to the crest of the road, the Accord driver noticed a Nissan Versa traveling, in the correct direction, toward him, Olivas said.
The driver of the Accord slammed onto the Versa, Olivas said.
The occupants inside the Versa, a man and two children were taken to a hospital, the officer said.
A bystander told KTLA the driver of the Versa said his little brothers weren’t breathing.
“He was pretty devastated, so we were assisting pulling out the two brothers,” said the bystander, who identified himself as Michael.
He said witnesses placed the boys on the ground and performed CPR until paramedics arrived.
CHP identified the Accord driver, who was hospitalized with minor to moderate injuries, as 27-year-old Ricardo Zuniga. He could face vehicular manslaughter charges, Olivas said.
The driver of the Altima stopped briefly then fled, Olivas said. Officials were searching for that person and described the Altima as a black sedan, possibly a 2005 model.
The victims’ mother, Maria Gonzalez, a single parent of five children, asked for the other driver to come forward.
The family set up a fundraising page for memorial costs.