SAN JOSE, California — One person was killed and four others were injured in a two-vehicle crash on Tully Road in East San Jose on Sunday evening, November 8, San Jose police said, in a collision that shut down two major neighbourhood roads for hours during the Sunday-evening return traffic.

Officers responded at about 5:44 p.m. to the crash on Tully Road between South White Road and Glen Angus Way, according to the San Jose Police Department. Police said two vehicles were involved. The exact circumstances of the collision — how the vehicles came together and in which direction each was travelling — had not been established by Sunday night, and investigators were still examining the scene.

Source: NBC Bay Area

A passenger in one of the vehicles was pronounced dead at the scene, a spokesperson for the San Jose Fire Department said. The driver of that same vehicle suffered life-threatening injuries and was taken to a local hospital, police and fire officials said. NBC Bay Area, citing the police department, described that second person's injuries as major injuries.

Source: KION Central Coast

The second vehicle was carrying three people, and all three were taken to hospital with injuries officials described as less severe than those in the first vehicle. In total, four injured people were transported for treatment, officials said. Police had not released the names, ages or genders of the person who died or of the injured by Sunday night, and no hospital conditions beyond the descriptions above had been made public.

Roads closed around Tully and White

The investigation closed the corridor in both directions. Police said Tully Road was closed in both directions between South White Road and East Capitol Expressway until further notice, and southbound lanes of South White Road were closed between Cunningham Avenue and Tully Road. Northbound South White Road was expected to reopen sooner, police told NBC Bay Area, while the Tully Road closure was to stay in place while officers examined and cleared the scene.

For East San Jose, those are not minor side streets. Tully Road is one of the main east-west arterials across the city's east side, carrying traffic between Highway 101, East Capitol Expressway and the White Road corridor, past homes, shops and schools. A full closure at the Sunday-evening hour — when families are returning home and restaurants and stores along Tully are at their busiest — pushes traffic onto Cunningham Avenue, Capitol Expressway and other local streets, and drivers in the area were advised by the closure pattern itself to expect long delays until police reopen the road.

What investigators still have to establish

Police said the cause of the crash remains under investigation. Reporting based on the police account, including the Pacific Attorney Group's summary of the department's release, said investigators had not immediately established the exact circumstances, and no information had been released by Sunday night about speed, impairment, a stop sign or signal, or any vehicle fault. Readers should treat any early social-media claim about fault as unverified: none of the official accounts published so far assigns blame to either driver.

In a fatal San Jose collision, the next steps are normally a completed police traffic investigation, identification of the person who died by the Santa Clara County medical examiner-coroner's office after family notification, and updates from police if charges or a cause are determined. Until those steps are announced, the identity of the passenger who died and the condition of the driver with life-threatening injuries remain the two facts families and neighbours are waiting for.

This is a developing story. Awaaz Punjab will update it if San Jose police release the deceased passenger's identity, the injured driver's condition, the cause of the collision, or the time the Tully Road and South White Road closures are lifted.