Petaluma crash kills two young sisters

The Sonoma County coroner’s office has identified two sisters who died when the car they were riding in drove into the Petaluma River Wednesday morning as 9-year-old Delilah Gonzalez and 7-year-old Sayra Gonzalez of Rohnert Park.

The girls’ mother was driving on Petaluma Boulevard North around 8 a.m. when the vehicle went off the road and down an embankment south of Gossage Avenue. The mother escaped from the vehicle.

The sisters were taken to Petaluma Valley Hospital, where they were pronounced dead. The crash closed Petaluma Boulevard Boulevard North between Gossage Avenue and Skillman Lane until 2:10 p.m.

Two young Jenner girls, Kaitlyn Markus, 6, and Hailey Markus, 4, died last week when their mother’s Ford F-250 truck drove off wet southbound state Highway 1 and down an embankment into the Russian River.

In that Aug. 23 crash, their 32-year-old mother kicked out a window in the truck and tried to remove her daughters in the back seat but the truck sank quickly in 15-20 feet of water, according to the California Highway Patrol.

The CHP also is investigating today’s fatal crash in Petaluma.