SAN DIEGO - The Navy sailor whose truck plummeted from the Coronado Bridge and crashed at a park below, killing four people, will be arraigned at the hospital on Wednesday, according to authorities.
Petty Officer 3rd Class Richard Anthony Sepolio, who is stationed at NAS North Island and works as an aviation electronics technician, was arrested in connection with the Oct. 15 crash that also injured nine others during an event at Chicano Park in Barrio Logan.
Sepolio, 25, faces four counts of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, a felony DUI causing injury or death, and three counts of gross bodily injuries in a DUI crash, the California Highway Patrol said Tuesday.
According to authorities, Sepolio's truck hit a guardrail and plunged about 60 feet onto a vendor's booth, killing Cruz Elias Contreras, 52, and Annamarie Contreras, 50, of Chandler, Arizona; and Andre Christopher Banks, 49, and Francine Denise Jimenez, 46, both from Hacienda Heights, a suburb east of Los Angeles.
CHP won't confirm if truck driver was texting before flying off bridge @10News pic.twitter.com/xNCliaeFJw
— Rachel Bianco (@10NewsRBianco) October 18, 2016
As Sepolio was removed from the damaged truck, a witness said the Navy man still had a cellphone in his hand.
The nine people injured have been released from the hospital. Sepolio remains hospitalized at UC San Diego Medical Center in Hillcrest.
Meanwhile, Caltrans officials said the investigation into the crash and the Coronado Bridge's part in it would be "lengthy."
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