Horrific Crash That Killed 4: Trial Underway

BAY AREA, CA — New details emerged Wednesday afternoon in a Martinez courtroom as witnesses testified at the jury trial of an alleged DUI driver accused of causing a series of collisions that took four lives on Interstate Highway 80 in San Pablo in 2017.

Fred Lowe, 49, was arrested in connection with the crash that damaged vehicles on both sides of the center divider on Highway 80 in San Pablo just before 8:15 p.m. on Nov. 25, 2017. According to the California Highway Patrol, Lowe had a blood-alcohol content of 0.14 percent when his blood was taken hours after the crash.

Four people were killed in the crash: 50-year-old Daryl Horn, 14-year-old Joseph Horn, both of Napa, and 52-year-old Troy Biddle and 12-year-old Baden Biddle, both of Bainbridge Island, Washington. Five vehicles were involved in the crash, and at least six additional injuries were reported.

Lowe faces four counts of murder as well as additional charges related to drunk driving and leaving the scene of a crash. He has two prior DUI convictions in Sacramento County in 2011 and 2012, as well as a robbery conviction out of Solano County in 1991.

One witness called by the prosecution Wednesday afternoon said she still has persistent neck problems more than two years after the crash, and underwent several months of physical therapy for her injuries.

She was in a westbound vehicle, on the other side of Highway 80, with her husband and children when the vehicle containing the decedents flew over the center divider and became involved in a series of collisions. She described the experience as devastating.

One of her daughters, a high school student, suffered a head injury in the crash that had to be stapled shut at a hospital. The injury caused her to miss a band audition at school.

Ivan Hernandez, a young man who witnessed the collision on Highway 80, testified that a vehicle matching the description of the one driven by Lowe, a blue Mercedes-Benz, nearly crashed near the freeway entrance and the driver had difficulty maintaining a lane before the crash.

Hernandez said he saw sparks and smoke at the scene of the crash, where a vehicle flew over the center divider, before he pulled over to call 911.

After the crash, Lowe allegedly fled the scene and parked his car in the vicinity of Barranca Street, off San Pablo Dam Road, where a resident called and reported the Mercedes-Benz as suspicious after noticing visible damage to the vehicle's exterior.

He was arrested nearby, according to the CHP.

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By Bay City News Service