A horrific crash on northbound 101 after midnight Wednesday night claimed the lives of four people, including a taxi driver and two passengers.

The collision happened just before 12:29 a.m. Thursday at Paul Avenue, in the northbound lanes of the freeway, after multiple reports of a vehicle traveling the wrong way (south) in the northbound lanes. As KPIX reports, the Volkswagen was seen driving the wrong way near the Candlestick Point off-ramp and at the junction of 280, and Officer Bert Diaz tells the station, "It is very possible it [the Volkswagen] they could have been traveling [the wrong-way] for some time."

Per NBC Bay Area, reports of the wrong-way driver came in around 12:24 a.m., and the crash was not discovered until five minutes later.

The driver of the Volkswagen, described only as a woman in her 30s or 40s, was killed, as was the driver of a Ford Escape taxi, identified as a man in his 60s. Also killed were two passengers in the taxi, which was traveling northbound toward San Francisco — described only as a male and a female. All four people were pronounced dead at the scene. The passengers may have been coming from SFO, as NBC Bay Area notes the presence of luggage in the road following the collision.

As KRON 4 reports, the right two lanes of northbound 101 were closed Thursday morning for the investigation, and it was unclear how long they would remain so. Northbound traffic on the freeway was significant throughout the early morning hours.