Eight believed dead in collision near Modesto

At least eight people were presumed dead Tuesday after a septic truck collided with a sport utility vehicle carrying farmworkers and both vehicles plunged into an irrigation canal in a rural area of Central California near Modesto.

Divers helped recover the truck and the body of its driver at 6 p.m. after working for three hours in choppy, fast-moving waters, authorities said.

The cause of the crash remains under investigation, according to California Highway Patrol Officer Mayolo Banuelos.

The accident occurred at 12:22 p.m. and rescuers were called to the scene a few miles southwest of Westley. The red SUV, which was traveling north on the east side of the Delta-Mendota Canal, had collided with the truck, which was headed west on Needham Road.

“The red SUV, for an unknown reason, pulled out in front” of the truck, Banuelos said.

It is believed that there were six people in the SUV and at least two in the truck.

Throughout the afternoon, desperate relatives and friends of victims crowded the canal’s banks. According to witnesses, the farmworkers were headed home after working at a nearby orchard, Banuelos said. It is not clear where the workers’ homes were.

The canal, which runs close to 20 feet deep and more than 60 feet wide, was packed with debris, which made it difficult for divers to recover the vehicles and bodies. The Bureau of Reclamation, which operates the canal, slowed the current for the divers, but that helped only a little, authorities said.

Because of the swift currents, it is unlikely that any of the crash victims survived, even if they escaped the vehicles, Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Deputy Tom Letras said.

“When our divers responded, the vehicles had been in the water for so long that there was really no chance of getting anyone out alive, so it became a recovery effort instead of a rescue effort,” Letras said. He said the divers had to drive 40 minutes to reach the site.

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esmeralda.bermudez@latimes.com

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.