Crime & Safety

Outrage Grows Over Concord Crash; 17-Year-old Driver Arrested for Killing Girl, Father

Driver was speeding, witnesses say, when he hit three cyclists. The third, 12, suffered minor injuries.

 

A father and his 9-year-old daughter were killed and a 12-year-old daughter was injured Saturday morning when a speeding, out-of-control sports utility vehicle sheared off a fire hydrant, struck them and slammed into a building.

The victims were Solaiman Nuri, 41, and Hadessa Nuri, 9, of Concord. The 12-year-old daughter, unidentified by police, suffered minor injuries, according to a news release from the .

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The 17-year-old driver of the 2002 white Cadillac Escalade was treated for minor injuries at a local hospital, then arrested on a charge of vehicular manslaughter and brought to Juvenile Hall in Martinez, police reported.

Witnesses reported seeing the boy standing outside the wreckage of his customized SUV, apparently trying to call a friend on his cell phone.

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The three family members were riding bicycles on the sidewalk at the intersection of Treat Boulevard and Oak Grove Road at about 9:30 a.m. when they were struck by the speeding Escalade, Contra Costa County Fire Protection District Fire Marshal Lewis Broschard said. All three bicyclists were wearing helmets, Concord police reported. They were riding on Treat Boulevard eastbound.

Mark Lucas, the manager of the Oil Changers on the southeast corner of the intersection, was chatting with a customer in the bays when he heard a boom. He stepped outside to see the SUV flipping over. He estimated it flipped over four or five times.

Then, Lucas said, "I heard kids screaming."

Lucas said he often saw the Nuris riding bikes in the area.

Immediately after the accident, the girl who survived was crying and pointing back toward where her father lay with his bicycle, according to a woman who works in the area and declined to identify herself. The woman also saw citizens tending to the injured people in the immediate aftermath and water gushing out of the hydrant at the northwest corner of the intersection.

Preliminary reports indicate that the vehicle was traveling at an "excessive rate of speed" through the intersection when it lost control, hit the three bicyclists and then careened into the building, Broschard said.

Solaiman Nuri was pronounced dead at the scene; Hadessa, the 9-year-old, was taken to John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek, where she was pronounced dead.

The elder Nuri was an Afghan immigrant who came to Concord from New York about five years ago, friends told the San Francisco Chronicle. He drove a truck and volunteered for his younger daughter's youth soccer team. She was a student at , where students are off school this week for spring break.

The 12-year-old girl was also taken to John Muir Medical Center for treatment of minor-to-moderate injuries.

The SUV banged off the one-story building at 2975 Treat Blvd., which houses an optometry office and has other office space for lease. There was visible damage to the beige brick of the building. Broschard said city engineers were responding to assess the structural integrity of the building damaged in the crash.

The Escalade was westbound on Treat Boulevard. It sheared off the hydrant at the northwest corner. Solaiman's bike came to rest about 100 feet west of the intersection in a driveway at 2975 Treat Blvd, with a silver water bottle resting alongside it. The two colorful girls bikes came to rest on the sidewalk about 150 feet west of the dad's bike. The SUV, with its severely damaged front end, ended up in a lane of traffic on Treat Boulevard, about 50 feet west of the girls' bikes.

One front wheel came off the SUV and was up against a window of the building.

The building is across Treat Boulevard from Flying Colors Comics and Trader Joe's in the Oak Grove Plaza.

The police investigation lasted all day, with part of the block of Treat Boulevard west of Oak Grove Road blocked and marked off with yellow police tape.

Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call Concord Traffic Officer Ken Carlson at (925) 603-5931.

— Bay City News Service contributed to this report.


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