SAN DIEGO (CNS) - Authorities released the names Tuesday of two brothers from Spring Valley killed in a possible DUI collision last weekend on a back- country road near Barona Casino.
The crash occurred when Geordan Dunkle, 24, lost control of a 1999 Saturn sedan on Wildcat Canyon Road in the Lakeside area shortly before 5 a.m. Sunday, according to the county Medical Examiner's Office and California Highway Patrol.
The northbound car veered across a set of solid double yellow lane markers, crashed into an oncoming 2000 Toyota Camry just north of Blue Sky Ranch Road and overturned, CHP Officer Berek Downing said. Dunkle and his 26- year-old brother, Gregory, died at the scene.
A 25-year-old Chula Vista man riding in the back of the Saturn suffered severe injuries in the wreck, as did the 42-year-old El Cajon man behind the wheel of the Camry. The surviving driver's 53-year-old male passenger, also an El Cajon resident, was left with moderately serious trauma.
Authorities found an open beer bottle and several medical-marijuana containers in the Saturn, Downing said. A determination on whether Geordan Dunkle was under the influence of alcohol or cannabis at the time of the crash remains on hold pending completion of postmortem toxicology tests.
It was the second time within 10 days that a pair of brothers in their 20s died together in a head-on collision on a San Diego-area rural road.
Late on the morning of July 17, Escondido residents Alexander and Andrew Parks, 27 and 24, respectively, were killed when an eastbound 2002 Mazda Miata crossed into oncoming traffic and smashed into a box truck on state Route 76 in the Rincon area. They died in the wreckage of the two-seat roadster.
The 49-year-old driver of the cargo vehicle and his 43-year-old male passenger suffered minor injuries, the CHP reported.
It was unclear why Andrew Parks lost control of the car.
