Escondido, CA, September 25 – A pedestrian died Monday evening after being struck by a vehicle on Centre City Parkway near Ninth Avenue, according to the Escondido Police Department. Police said the man walked into the roadway and was hit by a vehicle traveling in the northbound lanes at around 7:45 p.m. He was taken to a hospital, where he was later declared dead, authorities said.
Escondido Pedestrian Killed in Vehicle Collision on Centre City Parkway
A bystander at the scene stopped to help the man until paramedics arrived. Medics then rushed him to a hospital, where he was declared dead, according to the Escondido Police Department. Police said the victim’s name had not been immediately released, and no further personal details about him had been made public.
The driver involved in the crash did not leave the scene and cooperated with investigators, according to the Escondido Police Department. Police said the driver was not suspected of being impaired at the time of the collision. The crash closed roads in the area for nearly four hours while officers worked at the scene.
The Escondido Police Department said its investigation into the cause of the crash remains ongoing. As of this report, authorities had not released why the man entered the roadway or whether any additional factors contributed to the collision. No citations or further findings had been announced, and no additional updates were immediately available.
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.
