A solo crash took the life of a young woman and sent the male driver and a child to the hospital when the car they were traveling slammed into a tree at California Street and Allston Way early this morning.
Berkeley police say the Cadillac was barreling north on California at a high rate of speed 1:13 a.m. when the driver lost control and struck a tree on Allston Way. Police believe it may have first hit a roundabout in the intersection.
The driver, a female passenger and a child who had been sitting in the back seat all had to be extricated by police and firefighters. The woman died at the scene.
Police pegged the ages of the man and woman as in their 20s.
The man was taken to Highland Hospital in Oakland and the child was taken to Children's Hospital Oakland. By 3 p.m. today, both were still said to be in serious condition.
The victims' names are being withheld pending notification of next of kin.
It is not known whether alcohol played a role in the collision. The department's fatal accident team began investigating shortly before 4 a.m. and by mid-day were still collecting bits of debris from the crash site.
Intended to be traffic calming features, the city's roundabouts have come under fire for contributing to accidents in the past.
"There have been collisions periodically at these features around the City of Berkeley and yet, the number is not remarkable enough to suggest that they are the significant issue in this collision," Sgt. Mary Kusmiss said in an email message.
This is the second fatal collision of 2012. On January 30, a car struck a young man on a skateboard at Marin and Tulare avenues in North Berkeley. The skateboarder died as a result of his injuries.
