Family of 8 injured; hit-and-run driver sends them into Pleasanton canal

PLEASANTON, Calif. - A family of eight is lucky to be alive after the minivan they were in was struck by a hit-and-run driver and careened off Interstate 680 and into a canal in Pleasanton early Monday morning. 

Seven adults and a three-year-old child only suffered minor injury, according to California Highway Patrol.

The accident was reported about 6 a.m. on northbound Interstate 680 at the 580 interchange near Stoneridge Mall. The CHP says a blue vehicle struck the van and then took off.

Everyone got out of the van, and a tow truck was called to pull the van out of the canal.

Everyone in the van had on a safety belt, the CHP said. The van was traveling toward Southern California. 

"I was just actually walking by and looking at that fence going, 'I wonder if there was a bad accident that just happened,'" said Diane Cepeda of Dublin. 

A mangled guardrail remains at the spot where the family was catapulted off the interstate. 

"It was traveling at a high rate of speed and made several unsafe lane changes where it collided with a 2017 Toyota minivan," said Sgt. Justin Bradford with California Highway Patrol. 

Bradford said the collision sent the van through a chain-link fence and 150 feet down the steep embankment of the San Ramon Creek area. 

The van was flipped upside down at one point, before it ended upright in less than a foot of water. 

CHP says the driver who caused the wreck was last seen headed east on 580 in a blue car, possibly a Mitsubishi Lancer. 

"It's shocking that this person just left and didn't make sure that any of those people were okay," Cepeda said.