The California Highway Patrol’s Multidisciplinary Accident Investigation Team is currently investigating a collision on I-5 Saturday night that claimed the life of an infant and left the child’s mother clinging to life at an area hospital.

According to the CHP, shortly after 10:30 Saturday night a San Joaquin County Sherriff’s patrol vehicle was headed northbound just south of Charter Way when for unknown reasons it collided with the rear end of a vehicle traveling in front of it. The impact from the collision pushed both vehicles down the east embankment, and the officer in the patrol car responded to the vehicle and removed the infant from the car and began CPR.

Good Samaritans removed the driver of the vehicle that was struck from behind and began CPR as well.

The infant was life flighted to a nearby children’s hospital where they were pronounced deceased. The driver of the vehicle that was struck, who is presumed to the mother of the child that was killed, was initially listed in critical condition at an area hospital. The deputy was taken to a nearby hospital, treated for minor injuries, and released.

Three lanes of northbound I-5 were closed for almost seven hours while the CHP investigated the conditions of the accident, and the results of that investigation are not yet known.

A video believed to be of the accident that was captured from the security camera of a nearby home was released by an area news channel on Sunday night and shows the vehicle that was struck slowing down to a stop before the police cruiser – a Chevrolet patrol vehicle – violently slammed into it at freeway speeds and sent both vehicles careening down the embankment. Details as to where the vehicle was stopped on the freeway were not initially released, but the video does not appear to show the deputy’s vehicle with its emergency lights activated at the time if impact.

A photograph of the car that was struck was released by the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office Sunday morning and shows the entire back end of the small sedan caved in completely.

To contact reporter Jason Campbell email jcampbell@mantecabulletin.com or call 209.249.3544.