Two persons died and three others seriously injured as a result of two separate weekend crashes in Stanislaus County not far from Ceres.

The first death came Friday evening along Church Street south of B Street in Empire northwest of Hughson. According to the California Highway Patrol, 41-year-old Francisco Martinez of Modesto, the driver of a 2014 Jeep had a collision at 6:15 p.m. solo crash and ran from the scene. A short time later, at 6:45 p.m. Martinez was found dead in a backyard of a home on B Street, south of 1st Street. Still to be determined is if Martinez died from injuries he may have sustained in the crash or if he had some other kind of a medical emergency. The CHP investigation determined that the victim likely had been drinking before he began driving.

Anyone with information on the Empire crash is encouraged to contact CHP Officers Norseen or Mitchell at 209-545-7440.

McClure Road fatality

The second fatal crash occurred Sunday morning on McClure Road in the industrial park across the river from Ceres River Bluff Regional Park when a driver drifted and struck a parked trailer. Gerardo Fonseca-Andrade was killed in the 4:15 a.m. crash and his three passengers sustained major injuries.

According to the CHP, the 2014 Scion XB was being driven northbound on McClure Road north of Leckron Road when, for some unknown reason, the car drifted into southbound lane and struck the large trailer, killing the 34-year-old Modesto driver.

Injured were a 29-year-old woman and two girls, aged five and nine. The older girl was rushed to U.C. Davis Medical Center in Sacramento with major injuries while the five-year-old went to Valley Children’s Hospital. The woman, who was presumably their mother, was taken to Memorial Medical Center in Modesto

 It is unknown if drugs or alcohol were a cause for the crash.