The California Highway Patrol has identified the two officers killed in a morning crash on Highway 99 at Sierra Avenue in Kingsburg as Juan Gonzalez, 33, of Fresno and Brian Law, 34, of Clovis.
Just before 6 a.m. Monday, Law and Gonzalez were traveling southbound on Highway 99, responding to an accident where a truck was sideways on the center divide.
Two other vehicles were involved in that crash.
While the collision is under investigation, Capt. Dave Paris says it appears there was some confusion about whether the accident they were responding to was on the southbound or northbound lanes.
"And they actually drove right into the scene unbeknownst thinking it was still a northbound crash. They were proceeding beyond the collision to get off the freeway and come back northbound," Paris says.
Paris says Gonzalez was driving the patrol car.
When the officer swerved to avoid hitting the already crashed vehicles, the patrol unit lost control, hit the guardrail and then a pole.
Louis Reyes, who was observing the aftermath of the crash, says when he heard about the accident, he was worried and came out to see what happened.
"My nephew is a highway patrolman. And my wife called him to see if he was alright. And he said yeah, he was alright," Reyes says.
Officers Law and Gonzalez died on scene, making them the 224th and 225th CHP officers to die in the line of duty, according to CHP Officer Axel Reyes.
Law was married with three young children, and Gonzalez had a soon-to-be fiancee. The two officers were also best friends who graduated from the CHP academy together six years ago, Paris says.
The flags were lowered to half staff at the Fresno CHP office.
"We lost two fine officers, members of the California Highway Patrol. They were classmates, they trained together, came on at the same time," says CHP Commissioner Joe Farrow.
The last time the CHP's Central Division lost an officer was in 2005.
The accident investigation could take months to be complete.