FRESNO – The man who allegedly drove while intoxicated and caused a crash that killed four people over the weekend is facing charges of drunken driving and four counts of felony manslaughter.
California Highway Patrol officers arrested 43-year-old Rien Ban following a car crash on Sunday on Highway 180 east of Mendota that killed four people, including two young children.
The CHP is still trying to reconstruct what happened to cause the accident. A preliminary report says that Ban drove into oncoming traffic in an attempt to pass a slower car, then swerved back into his lane when he saw a Kia coming at him. The driver in the Kia also swerved, and the two vehicles smashed into each other, according to authorities.
Suyapa Quezada, 37, was driving the Kia. She survived. However, her sister, 25-year-old Belkys Rodriguez Quezada, was in the front passenger seat and died, as did Suyapa Quezada’s two sons, Lisandro Enriquez Rodriguez, 10, and Danny Enriquez Rodriguez, 7, who were in the back seats.
The other victim of the crash was Sinoeun Uong, 37, a passenger in Ban’s vehicle.
Ban has at least two previous DUI convictions, his last of which was in 2006.
“I will tell you that these are cases that don’t have to happen. These are cases where a person getting behind the wheel and being impaired can affect the lives not only of the victims in these cases, but of the victims’ families, the defendant’s families, their friends, their employers, the whole community. It really has to stop,” said Chief DA Deputy Greg Anderson.
Read More:
Fresno Bee: Fresno man arrested in crash west of Kerman that killed 4
ABC30: Troubling history of deadly Fresno county DUI suspect
