Two men were killed early Thursday in downtown San Jose when the car they were riding in overturned after the driver sped away from the California Highway Patrol — the second fatal accident downtown this summer involving the CHP.

Thursday’s dramatic crash happened about 1:30 a.m., after a 2003 Ford Explorer — pulled over because of a missing front license plate — bolted from a traffic stop when officers got out of their cruiser and started to approach the SUV, according to the CHP.

In a news conference at a CHP office in Vallejo, Sgt. Trent Cross insisted the crash was not the result of a “bumper-to-bumper” high-speed pursuit, and that the SUV was several hundred yards ahead of the officers when it crashed into a parked Jeep Cherokee and utility trailer.

The accident was “totally preventable, had the driver of the Ford Explorer not fled from police,” Cross said. “We don’t know what the motivation was for running from the police.”

Cross said officers at the time didn’t know the identity of the driver — Jose “Antonio” Hernandez, 19, of San Jose — or that he was driving on a suspended license.

Both men riding in the back of the SUV were killed; the driver and a man riding in the front seat were hospitalized but expected to survive. Nobody else was injured.

CHP officers faced criticism in July, when a Honda Civic fleeing officers on city streets during late afternoon smashed into another vehicle, killing a 15-year-old girl.

Cross said the July 13 pursuit is still being reviewed. Thursday’s crash will also undergo a standard review “to ensure compliance with policy,” said Fran Clader, spokeswoman for CHP headquarters in Sacramento. “The report is independently reviewed by several levels of management.”

In a news release Thursday, CHP said the encounter began about 1:25 a.m., when officers pulled over the Ford Explorer on Carlysle Street, west of North Almaden Avenue. As officers exited their car, the Explorer took off “at a high rate of speed,” according to a CHP statement.

The officers hopped into their patrol car, turned on their lights and siren and tried to follow the Ford but “soon lost sight” of it, the statement said. The officers “discontinued” their pursuit, but a “short time later” spotted the Ford “driving erratically” on eastbound East St. James Street, approaching North Sixth Street, and flipped on their lights and siren again. The SUV “simultaneously lost control,” crashing into a parked car and a utility trailer.

One man who witnessed the predawn crash said he saw the Ford riding up “on two wheels running from state patrol” in the residential neighborhood.

Officers arrested the driver, Hernandez, on suspicion of two counts of vehicular manslaughter, driving under the influence, possession of drugs, driving on a suspended license and evading an officer/failing to yield to an officer, San Jose police Officer Jose Garcia said.

A review of Department of Motor Vehicles records showed that Hernandez’s license was suspended July 23 for failing to appear in court. In November, the records show, he was cited for not stopping at a stop sign and not wearing a seat belt on two different occasions. In December, he was cited for speeding. In February, he was cited for not wearing a seat belt.

When asked if the CHP took unnecessary risk in pursuing someone who didn’t have a front license plate, Cross said officers can’t assess that until they learn what prompted Hernandez to speed away.

Hernandez’s aunt Nadine Torres and his mother, Sylvia Lopez, acknowledged that Hernandez had a suspended license, but they insisted that hospital tests showed Hernandez was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Both were at a loss as to why Hernandez ran from the CHP.

“He’s never been in trouble, he works and he’s a good kid,” Torres said. “He’s been pulled over and had tickets before, and he’s always stopped. I don’t understand what made this time different.”

The family had not been able to talk to Hernandez by Thursday afternoon because he was having surgery on his hand, Torres said. A passenger in the Explorer — Hernandez’s uncle, Eli Sanchez, 24 — suffered a fractured spine.

Thursday morning, a crowd gathered at the crash site. Some wept and trembled at the sight of vehicles still flipped on their sides and the trailer wrapped around a tree as coroners began removing the two bodies.

Corina Reza was among those gathered. She said the Santa Clara County coroner’s office informed her one of the two dead passengers was her son, 22-year-old Vincente Reza.

“He’s dead. He’s dead,” Reza’s girlfriend, Danee Mercado, said, crying hysterically. “I want him back.”

The coroner had not officially released the names of either of the crash victims.

The latest federal statistics show that 424 people died during police chases in 2007, a generally increasing trend, with 40 of them in California. Texas, home of the most fatalities that year, had 44.

Blake Flournoy, 49, said he was walking to a nearby 7-Eleven before 2 a.m. when he saw the SUV speeding down St. James Street and hit one white car and then the trailer of a Ford pickup on the street.

One young man jumped out of the Blazer and started running away. Flournoy heard him say, “I’m all right. I gotta get outta here.”

“You’re not going anywhere,” Flournoy said he told him. Then Flournoy said he pushed the young man up against a fence and his son held him down. He watched another young man run down the street.

Garcia said authorities have not determined how fast the SUV was traveling. His department is only reviewing the traffic accident, he said.

“We won’t make a determination of whether the CHP was in compliance with pursuit policy,” Garcia said.

In the July 13 crash, a CHP officer was parked at the intersection of northbound Interstate 280 and the 11th Street offramp, monitoring the area, when he saw a Honda Civic ignore a sign prohibiting turns at a red signal.

The driver, Bernardino Cuebas, 24, fled from the CHP and allegedly ran through a red light at San Fernando Street, broadsiding a Mitsubishi Mirage heading south on 10th Street. The Mitsubishi nearly split in two, and a 15-year-old girl was flung into the street, authorities said. The teen, Leyda Montufar, died the next day. Her younger brother and sister were injured.

Officers later learned that Cuebas was a felon with a history of fleeing police. However, the CHP officer who made the traffic stop did not know that at the time.

Contact Linda Goldston at 408-920-5862 or lgoldston@mercurynews.com.