San Jose, CA, October 5 – Harrison Golding, a 37-year-old motorcyclist, died after a collision with a Toyota RAV4 on Sunday morning at an intersection in South San Jose, the Santa Clara County Office of the Medical Examiner reported. The San Jose Police Department has described the crash and the vehicles involved in it, and several details about it have not been released to the public so far.
Motorcyclist Harrison Golding, 37, dies in crash with Toyota RAV4 in South San Jose
Police say Golding was riding a black 2009 Yamaha FZ6R motorcycle west on McKean Road, shortly before noon, when he reached the intersection with Almaden Road. There, the motorcycle collided with a gray 2025 Toyota RAV4 traveling north. Police described the collision as involving two vehicles, the motorcycle and the RAV4.
Golding suffered serious injuries in the crash, and paramedics rushed him to a local hospital, where he died while receiving treatment. The Santa Clara County Office of the Medical Examiner has reported the death, which makes it a fatal crash for the rider. The driver of the RAV4 remained at the scene after the collision and is cooperating with the investigation, according to police.
Investigators are still working to establish what happened leading up to the crash, and no cause has been announced publicly. Road closures are in place near the scene, and police are asking drivers to avoid the area and use alternate routes. Until the investigation is complete, the circumstances of the collision remain unconfirmed.
Lane splitting, and what the Vehicle Code actually says
Vehicle Code section 21658.1 defines lane splitting and authorises the California Highway Patrol to develop educational guidelines for it. What matters after a crash is the distinction the section draws: lane splitting is not prohibited in California, and not prohibited is not the same thing as legal.
The practical effect is that a rider who was lane splitting has not broken a rule by doing so, and an insurer that treats lane splitting as automatic fault is asserting something the statute does not say. Fault still turns on how each party behaved, the same as in any other collision.
The deadline that applies to a claim like this one
Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1 gives two years for an action for injury to, or for the death of, an individual caused by the wrongful act or neglect of another. The same two years covers an injury claim and a death claim; there is no separate, shorter period because someone died.
Who is entitled to bring a claim when someone is killed
Code of Civil Procedure section 377.60 decides who may bring a wrongful death action. The first group is the surviving spouse, domestic partner, children and the issue of deceased children, or, where there is no surviving issue, whoever would take the estate by intestate succession.
A second group may bring the action only if they were financially dependent on the person who died: a putative spouse and their children, stepchildren, parents, and the legal guardians of the person who died where the parents are deceased. Parents are in that second group, which is the part families are most often surprised by, because dependency has to be shown rather than assumed.
Talking to someone about it
Culver Legal represents people injured in collisions across California. A conversation about what happened costs nothing, and we work on a contingency fee, which means there is no fee unless we win. If we do not win, we do not pass the case costs on to you either.
Nothing on this page is legal advice about any particular case, and the facts of a reported collision often change as the investigation continues.
