Grandmother, granddaughter among 4 killed in head-on crash north of Modesto
A 60-year-old woman and her granddaughter were among the four people killed in the Tuesday afternoon head-on traffic collision on McHenry Avenue north of Modesto.
The California Highway Patrol identified the woman as Linden resident Patricia Marie Lopez and her granddaughter as 1-year-old Clara Howells of Turlock.
Lopez looked after Clara two or three times a week while Clara’s mom was at work, said Peggy La Rossa, Lopez’s sister. “She had four granddaughters and she loved them all,” La Rossa said about her sister. “She was a wonderful noni. That’s Italian for grandmother.”
La Rossa said Clara would have turned 2 in July.
“She was the best baby ever,” La Rossa said. “She was really smart, and she loved to dance. ... And she was always in a good mood, and she was never sick.”
She said her sister and her sister’s husband, Carlos, had lived in Turlock but moved to Linden in November to help care for La Rossa and Lopez’s 84-year-old mother. Lopez was driving to Modesto on Tuesday afternoon to drop Clara off with her son-in-law.
The CHP identified the two other people who died in collision as Merced residents Francis Joe Catano, 22, and Angeles Lisset Escoto, 19.
“We are deeply saddened by this unfortunate event,” an Escoto family friend said in an email. “We wish we had answers as we are searching for it ourselves. We send our condolences out to the other family involved.”
Escoto’s family has set up a GoFundMe account to raise money for her funeral. Catano’s family could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
The crash happened at about 4 p.m. on McHenry Avenue just north of Hogue Road and near Del Rio, according to a CHP news release. Lopez was driving south in a 2019 Toyota SUV and Escoto was driving north in a 2004 Mitsubishi with Catano as her passenger.
The CHP’s preliminary investigation shows Escoto “allowed the Mitsubishi to enter the number two lane before reentering the number one lane. The Mitsubishi entered the southbound number one lane, directly toward a Toyota SUV. A head-on collision occurred,” according to the release.
Lopez was taken by ambulance to Memorial Medical Center, and her granddaughter was taken by ambulance to Doctors Medical Center. Both were pronounced dead at the hospitals. Escoto and Catano were pronounced dead at the scene.
A Ford pickup heading south on McHenry hit the two vehicles, and a Dodge Ram heading south on McHenry hit the Mitsubishi, according to the news release. The drivers were alone in their vehicles and were not injured. It was unknown as of Wednesday morning if drugs or alcohol factored in the collision.
“We’re still trying to figure out the contributing factors,” CHP Modesto office spokesman Officer Tom Olsen told The Bee late Wednesday morning. “All we have right now is that the (Mitsubishi) vehicle made a sharp turn to the left, directly into the path of the other vehicles.”
La Rossa said her sister was retired after working for the state as an agriculture inspector. La Rossa said her sister’s survivors include daughters Crystal Marshall of San Andreas and Amanda Howells of Turlock.
Bee reporter Trevor Morgan contributed to this story.
