Arvin, CA, September 10 – The Kern County Coroner’s Office has identified a 68-year-old Bakersfield man who died in a two-vehicle collision near Arvin last week. Esteban Flores was killed when the car he was driving collided with a pickup truck at an intersection, according to investigators. The crash happened early in the morning. The other driver, a 64-year-old man from McFarland, was taken to a hospital with minor injuries. The California Highway Patrol is investigating.
Arvin Man Killed in Two-Vehicle Crash on Panama Road
Flores was driving a 2001 Honda Civic east on Panama Road at about 4:48 a.m. on September 3 when he entered the intersection with Tejon Highway west of Arvin. He collided with a 2007 Toyota Tacoma that was traveling south on Tejon Highway at around 60 mph, according to investigators. No further details about how the two vehicles came together in the intersection have been released.
Emergency crews responded to the scene, and Flores was declared dead there. The driver of the Tacoma, a 64-year-old man from McFarland, was taken to Kern Medical with minor injuries. His name has not been released, and no further details on his condition, treatment, or recovery have been made public.
The California Highway Patrol is investigating the crash. The Kern County Coroner’s Office identified Flores publicly last week, more than a week after the collision occurred. The agency has not announced a cause for the crash, and it is not known whether either driver was cited or found at fault. No further findings have been released as of this report.
What the at-fault driver is required to carry, and why it often is not enough
Vehicle Code section 16056 sets California’s minimum liability limits, and they changed recently. For a policy issued or renewed on or after 1 January 2025, the minimum is $30,000 for injury to or death of one person, $60,000 where two or more people are hurt, and $15,000 for property damage. Policies written before that date may still carry the older minimum of $15,000, $30,000 and $5,000.
Those are floors, not typical limits, and a single hospital admission can exhaust the lower figure before any other loss is counted. Where the at-fault driver carries the minimum, the uninsured and underinsured motorist cover on the injured person’s own policy is often the part that matters most, and it is worth checking early rather than after the other insurer has made an offer.
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.
