Modesto, CA, October 12 – Two teenage girls died after being struck by a vehicle while crossing in a crosswalk near Downey High School on October 9, according to a police report. The collision happened around 8:50 p.m. in the 1100 block of Coffee Road as the girls were walking to a football game at the school. One victim died shortly after the crash, and the second died days later from her injuries, officials said.
Modesto Pedestrian Crash Near Downey High School Kills Two Students
Camila Mendoza Magallon, 16, and Nicole Cotzojay, 14, were walking in a crosswalk in the 1100 block of Coffee Road around 8:50 p.m. on October 9 when they were struck by a southbound vehicle, according to a police report. The girls were on their way to a football game at Downey High School at the time. Both were taken to a hospital following the collision.
Magallon died from her injuries shortly after the crash, according to the police report. Cotzojay remained hospitalized afterward with severe injuries. Authorities later confirmed that she died over the weekend, making her the second of the two students to lose her life as a result of the collision near Downey High School.
Both girls attended Modesto High School, according to Modesto City Schools officials. GoFundMe pages have been created to help cover funeral expenses for Magallon and Cotzojay. Police have not released additional details about the driver, the vehicle involved, or the circumstances leading up to the collision, and no cause has been confirmed.
What California law requires of drivers around pedestrians
Vehicle Code section 21950 requires a driver to yield the right of way to a pedestrian crossing within any marked crosswalk, or within an unmarked crosswalk at an intersection. Subdivision (b) is the one people misread: a pedestrian may walk or run, and doing either does not forfeit the right of way.
Subdivision (c) puts a separate duty on the driver. A driver approaching a pedestrian in any crosswalk must exercise all due care and reduce the speed of the vehicle. That duty applies whether or not the pedestrian had the right of way, and subdivision (d) preserves it: nothing in the section relieves a driver of the duty to use due care for the safety of any pedestrian in the roadway.
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.
