A 20-year-old Bakersfield man was killed while street racing last Sunday, according to the California Highway Patrol.
Marcelino Gonzalez, was racing another car on Wible road around 1:30 a.m. Sunday near Herring road. The cars sped up to 65-70 miles per hour, according to the CHP.
"This SUV was traveling at a high rate of speed, was traveling southbound on Wible Road and was attempting to make a right turn on Herring Road when it failed to stop a posted stop sign and as it made its right turn it lost control," CHP PIO Robert Rodriguez said.
The car ended up rolling over into a canal, killing Gonzalez. He was pronounced dead at the scene. There were five other people in the car, who suffered minor injuries.
Alcohol and drugs was not believed to be a factor in the crash, CHP said.
Rodriguez said this is a growing concern, "Usually during the summer we will see a spike in...you can call it drag-racing, street-racing, just racing in general out there and usually young adults, teenagers they will leave and they will pick a remote area of Kern County to do this at and unfortunately this is what can happen."
The driver of the other vehicle fled before police arrived, Friends and family reached out to 23ABC saying Gonzales was not street racing.
