Deer Valley grad charged with vehicular manslaughter in highway crash that killed two friends
Authorities have charged 19-year-old Antioch resident Ramya Ramey with two counts of vehicular manslaughter and two counts of felony reckless driving on a highway causing a specified injury, but they dropped DUI-related charges in the Aug. 12, 2018 crash that killed two of her Deer Valley High School friends.
MARTINEZ — A woman accused of killing two teenagers after driving a car that went off a Walnut Creek highway last summer will not face charges that she drove under the influence.
Ramya Ramey, 19, has been charged with two counts of vehicular manslaughter and two counts of felony reckless driving on a highway causing a specified injury for her role in the Aug. 12, 2018, crash that killed John Walizada, 18, and Dakarai Fagorala, 17, both of Antioch, authorities said.
Two other 18-year-old women suffered serious injuries but survived.
Authorities did not charge Ramey with any DUI-related crimes. In the hours after the crash, police suspected she was under the influence as she drove a silver 2000 Honda Civic off a highway flyover around 4 a.m.
“Evidence did not show any ability for us to charge a DUI,” said Scott Alonso, a spokesman for the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office.
Ramey will be arraigned at 1 p.m. Thursday at Superior Court in Martinez.
The crash happened as the went east on Highway 24, just before the northbound I-680 junction, and the Honda fell about 40 to 50 feet to the ground below, authorities said.
Walizada and Fagorala died at the scene.
Ramey graduated from Deer Valley High School in June and was set to attend University of the Pacific in Stockton, where she planned to study biomedical courses, according to a family relative.
Walizada and Fagorola, the two other passengers and Ramey had been friends since middle school, Fagorla’s mother, Kimberlea Reed, told this newspaper in August. “They were kind of like the Breakfast Club for Deer Valley,” she said.
They were celebrating their last weekend together before heading out to their respective colleges.
Check back for updates.