Cerritos, CA, October 6 – Early Tuesday, a crash between two vehicles on northbound Interstate 605 near State Route 91 claimed one life, according to a report from the California Highway Patrol. Emergency crews and the coroner were both called to the scene of the crash. The information here comes only from that report, which describes the crash in general terms and does not yet explain its cause.
Cerritos crash on northbound I-605 near SR-91 kills one person
The crash was logged at about 12:28 a.m. Tuesday. The two vehicles were a gold SUV and a black sedan. Facing the wrong way, the sedan stopped across the middle lanes of the freeway, and the SUV reportedly came to rest on the right embankment. The account describes where both vehicles ended up, not how they got there.
The coroner’s office has been alerted to the death. Firefighters were asked to operate a cutting tool so the person’s body could be taken out of one of the vehicles. The freeway was shut completely in that area while crews worked at the scene, and drivers were routed off South Street. Lanes were brought back into service little by little.
The SigAlert was lifted at about 4:44 a.m., during the early morning hours, and the incident was closed soon after. The circumstances of the crash are still being examined, and no determination has been made so far. Details about the person who died, including their name, have not been released.
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.
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.
