6 dead after vehicle slams into tree in California

A sport utility vehicle filled with foreign students swerved off a highway, slammed into a tree and burst into flames, killing six of the seven people aboard, California Highway Patrol officials said.

A sport utility vehicle filled with foreign students swerved off a highway, slammed into a tree and burst into flames, killing six of the seven people aboard, California Highway Patrol officials said.

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All but one of those in the vehicle that crashed on Thursday evening near Los Alamos, about 140 miles (225 kilometers) northwest of Los Angeles, were foreign students studying in San Francisco: four from France and one each from Russia and Turkey. The remaining passenger, a 30-year-old San Francisco man and US citizen, was among the dead.

The group was headed to the Los Angeles area when the Toyota Land Cruiser drifted into the dirt median on Highway 101, the driver, Jeanne Ostrowski, 19, swerved to the right, CHP Sgt Ben Ruth said. The SUV then veered off the road and slammed into a cottonwood tree. No other vehicles were involved.

A witness helped the driver out of the burning vehicle. Ostrowski, who is French, suffered major injuries and is in serious condition at a hospital, Ruth said.

All six of the students were in their 20s. Five attended the Embassy Center for English Studies and one attended LINES Ballet School in San Francisco.

Embassy spokesman John LoGrasso declined to comment on the accident. A message left with the ballet school was not immediately returned on Friday.