Fresno, CA, September 29 – Two men died in a crash on Lincoln Avenue in Fresno, according to the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office, which released the identities of the victims as Diego Garcia Tepec, 56, of Fresno, and Juan Ortega Juarez, 57. The sheriff’s office said both men were killed when the vehicle they were traveling in together was struck by another car, though further details were not immediately available.
Fresno Crash on Lincoln Avenue Kills Two Men
The California Highway Patrol reported that Tepec was driving a Nissan Sentra when it was rear-ended by a Honda Civic. Juarez was riding in the Nissan as a passenger at the time. The collision happened at around 8:00 a.m. on Monday, September 28, according to the agency’s account of the crash.
The driver of the Honda Civic was taken to a hospital after the crash with injuries that were described as non-life-threatening. The California Highway Patrol is investigating the collision, the agency said. No additional information about the condition of the Honda’s driver has been released since the initial report was issued by authorities.
Several aspects of the crash remain unconfirmed. Investigators have not said what caused the Honda Civic to strike the Nissan Sentra from behind, and neither the California Highway Patrol nor the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office has announced whether any citations have been issued. The exact sequence of events leading up to the collision has not yet been made public.
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.
