Man Arrested After Dead Body Found In Burning Car On Hwy 101

A man has been arrested in a hit-and-run crash early this morning on U.S. Highway 101 in San Jose that killed a 37-year-old man whose car burst into flames after it was struck by a second vehicle, according to the California Highway Patrol.

Quoc Cong Le, 35, was booked into the Santa Clara County Main Jail on suspicion of DUI, hit-and-run and gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, CHP spokesman Officer Ross Lee said.

The man killed in the fatal wreck was identified as Raul Barron, 37, of San Jose, according to the Santa Clara County medical examiner’s office.

Le was being held this morning without bail at the county jail, according to online jail records.

The CHP received a report at 12:20 a.m. of a collision on northbound Highway 101 south of De La Cruz Boulevard in San Jose, where the driver of a 2011 Nissan Frontier pickup truck, later identified as Le, struck the rear of a Ford Taurus sedan, Lee said. The damaged Taurus remained stationary in the highway’s two left lanes while the driver of the Nissan kept driving, Lee said.

The driver of a 2008 Ford pickup truck, owned by the In-N-Out burger chain, heading north on the highway rammed into the Taurus, pushing it to the right shoulder and into a concrete wall where the sedan burst into flames and was on fire when CHP officers and medical personnel got there, Lee said.

The Nissan’s driver exited the highway at Great America Parkway and then made a left, going the wrong way on Mission College Boulevard, Lee said.

The driver eventually halted at an International House of Pancakes restaurant, got out of the pickup and hid behind some trash containers, he said.

Santa Clara police officers, who had heard about the crash on the highway, spotted the Nissan, which had damage to its left front tire and front end, and reported the vehicle to the CHP, according to Lee.

CHP officers drove to the restaurant where Le was found hiding, interviewed him, had him perform field sobriety tests and arrested him, Lee said. The man in the Taurus, Barron, was pronounced dead at the scene.

The driver of the Ford pickup complained of some pain but was not transported to a hospital, Lee said.

Le was not injured in the crash, he said.

The CHP is still investigating the case and will seek to interview more witnesses, Lee said. Officers are not sure if the Taurus became immobile on the highway before or after the Nissan struck it, whether the fire started because of the collision with the pickup or the crash into the wall and why the driver of the pickup was unable to stop before crashing into the Taurus, he said.

The collisions occurred before it started raining today and the roadway was dry, Lee said.

--Bay City News

--Shutterstock image

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