Bakersfield, CA, November 2 – Four pedestrians, two adults and two juveniles, were struck by a vehicle while walking in a Bakersfield crosswalk on Halloween night, according to the Bakersfield Police Department. A 12-year-old girl among them later died from her injuries, while the other three were taken to a local hospital with injuries that were not considered life-threatening. Police have not released additional details about the circumstances of the crash.
Bakersfield 12-year-old girl killed, three injured in Halloween pedestrian crash
According to the Bakersfield Police Department, the crash happened in the 3800 block of Harris Road near Marin Street shortly after 6:30 p.m. Saturday. Police said the pedestrians were walking south within an unmarked crosswalk at that intersection when a red Hyundai sedan heading east on Harris Road struck them. The driver remained at the scene afterward and spoke with the officers who responded.
Police said four pedestrians were hurt in the crash, two adults and two juveniles, and paramedics took all of them by ambulance to a local hospital. The 12-year-old girl later died from her injuries there. The other three, including one additional juvenile, suffered injuries that were not considered life-threatening, according to police.
Police have not said whether speed or impairment may have contributed to the crash, and that aspect of the investigation remains open, according to the Bakersfield Police Department. The identities of the victims, including the girl who died, have not been released. Beyond the preliminary details police have shared, no further information about the cause of the crash has been made public.
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.
If a public agency may be involved, the deadline is much shorter
Where a city, county, transit agency, school district or state agency is a potential defendant, Government Code section 911.2 requires a written claim to be presented to that entity within six months. The six months runs from when the claim accrues, and the claim is presented to the entity itself: a school district and a city are separate public entities with separate processes.
Two things follow that are easy to get wrong. The six months is the deadline to present the claim, not the deadline to sue, and it attaches to the public entity as a defendant rather than to the location of the crash, so a case with both a private and a public defendant is not entirely governed by it. Once the entity mails a written rejection, Government Code section 945.6 allows six months to file suit, which is shorter than the window that just closed. If no written rejection is ever sent, that period is two years from accrual.
Missing the six months is not automatically the end of it. Government Code section 911.6(b) requires the board to grant a late claim application on any of six grounds, including where the person was a minor, or was physically or mentally incapacitated, for the whole of the six months or for any part of it.
A claim against the City of Bakersfield is presented to the City Clerk at 1600 Truxtun Avenue, and the six months in Government Code section 911.2 applies to it.
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.
