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GUERNEVILLE, Calif. (KTVU) -- Two Sonoma County residents were killed late Tuesday when the car they were riding in collided with a tree, the third double fatal crash in the North Bay in as many weeks.
Authorities have identified the driver of the Mitsubishi sedan as Ed Reynolds, 19, of Guerneville. Authorities have not yet publicly identified the 18-year-old woman who was the passenger in the vehicle, although both are said to be local residents of the area.
The woman was said to have worked at Monte Rio beach, and the two may have been returning from the coast when the crash occurred.
Investigators said the crash occurred Tuesday night in the Russian River community of Monte Rio, about 4 miles west of Guerneville. Local authorities said it appears that excessive speed was the primary factor in the fatal crash.
"You don't even see a skid mark (so) he didn't try to slow down," said Monte Rio fire Chief Steve Baxman while at the scene of the crash on Moscow Road. Baxman estimates the car was traveling at least 70 miles an hour on a road where the speed limit is much lower.
"Until we pulled it away from the tree, and could actually see somebody, we didn't know anyone was in there," Baxman said.
Investigators said the couple died instantly when the vehicle sailed across double yellow lines and skidded sideways into a gully, slamming roof-first into some bay trees. The car came to a rest when it wrapped around the trees.
"You've got an embankment, you've got narrow roads. And trees that are not forgiving," Baxman said. "No damage done to the trees (because) they don't give."
California Highway Patrol investigators said alcohol bottles were found at the scene, and they are looking into what Reynolds was doing before the crash.
Neighbors heard the impact, and came running.
"I went to the scene today and a friend of his pulled up and told me he left a child behind, so it's pretty sad," neighbor Brandon Thompson said.
It is another double tragedy for the North Bay. Just over two weeks ago, a pick-up truck slid off a slick highway in Jenner, and two little girls inside the vehicle drowned. Last week, another vehicle with a mom and two young sisters crashed into the Petaluma River, and that time too, only the mother survived.
"It looks horrible on paper, and it's what I would call a cluster," CHP Trooper Jon Sloat said.
The three crashes, plus two other single car fatalities, add up to eight traffic deaths in Sonoma County in three weeks.
"There's really no rhyme or reason to connect any of these," Sloat said. "And the only connecting factor might be speed in all these fatals. You take speed out of the equation, some of them might have been avoided."
A mom and daughter, whose home backs up to Moscow Road, heard the impact and then silence.
"It was just a boom, and that was it, no screeching, no yelling, nothing," Linda Kennebeck said.
They ran to the crash, to find there was nothing they could do.
Alison Kennebeck laid a bouquet at the site Wednesday evening. She is 21, older than the victims, but remembers them from El Molino High School.
"You think you're invincible because you know the roads, and you drive them every day," Kennebeck said. "You think you're not going to be that one person who's going to crash into the tree."
Baxman hopes the crash convinces people to slow down on rural roads.
"It's very tragic. Too many people dying and too many young people dying."
KTVU reporter Debora Villalon contributed to this report.