The guy calling was not the guy driving, he was a passenger. Presumably the driver was working at it. And the driver was a member of the California Highway Patrol so I assume he knew something about driving.
Here's more details. But it is certainly possible that the driver didn't do something he could have been doing, I don't know the conditions under which he was driving.
Here's where
they crashed. Not only did they hit an intersection but it was a t-intersection so regardless of why they were still traveling 100+ miles an hour they were screwed.