Bakersfield, CA, September 10 – A head-on crash on Copus Road early on August 28 killed three Taft residents, according to the California Highway Patrol and the Kern County Coroner’s Office. The three men were riding in the same vehicle when it collided with another car. Two other passengers in their vehicle and both occupants of the second car were treated for injuries described as minor to moderate.
Bakersfield Crash on Copus Road Kills Three Taft Men
The California Highway Patrol identified the driver of one vehicle as 43-year-old Jacobo Yesca Paz, who was behind the wheel of a 2003 Nissan Sentra heading eastbound, west of Old River Road. Also killed were his passengers, identified by the Kern County Coroner’s Office as 54-year-old Pablo Galindo Quiahua and 35-year-old Raul Velasco Torres. All three lived in Taft. The Nissan collided head-on with a 2005 Honda Odyssey traveling in the opposite direction.
According to the California Highway Patrol, Yesca Paz drifted out of the eastbound lane and into the path of the oncoming Odyssey for reasons that remain undetermined, causing the two vehicles to collide head-on. The Odyssey was being driven by a 60-year-old Bakersfield man. Two other passengers who were riding with Yesca Paz in the Nissan were also involved in the crash; their identities have not been released.
The California Highway Patrol said its investigation into the crash is ongoing. The CHP has not said whether alcohol or drugs contributed to Yesca Paz drifting into the oncoming lane, and the reason for the drift has not been made public. That remains the central unanswered question in the crash that killed the three Taft men.
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.
