San Marcos, CA, October 29 – William Harvey Cahoone Jr., 77, of Hollywood, South Carolina, died October 7, 2026, roughly a month after he was injured in a two-vehicle crash in San Marcos, according to the San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Office. He passed away at Palomar Medical Center in Escondido, where he had been receiving treatment. The crash occurred September 4, 2026, when one vehicle rear-ended another vehicle that Cahoone was driving.
Man Injured in San Marcos Crash Dies Weeks Later
The collision happened at approximately 11:59 a.m. in the 1500 block of West San Marcos Boulevard, according to medical examiner records. Those records indicate that one vehicle struck the rear of another vehicle, with Cahoone driving the vehicle that had been hit from behind. He was taken to a hospital for treatment immediately after the crash, the records state.
The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department investigated the collision, according to medical examiner records. Cahoone died more than a month after the crash that injured him. Those records list his cause of death as sepsis resulting from a urinary tract infection, which was attributed to blunt force trauma to his neck. The death was ruled accidental in medical examiner records.
Authorities have not released additional details about the crash, including what led to the collision or whether the driver of the other vehicle was cited. The medical examiner’s report does not identify the other driver or state whether anyone else was injured. It remains unclear what, if any, additional findings came from the Sheriff’s Department’s investigation after the crash was first reported in September.
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 January 1, 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.
