National City, CA, October 31 – A woman has been identified after she was struck and killed when she exited her stopped vehicle on a freeway in San Diego County. The San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Office identified her as 24-year-old Destiny Crystal De Leon Alvarado of Chula Vista. The collision took place on southbound Interstate 805, south of East 4th Street, prompting a lengthy closure of the freeway’s southbound lanes. Investigators have not disclosed additional information about how the crash occurred.
National City Woman Identified After Fatal I-805 Pedestrian Collision
The collision occurred around 6:05 a.m. on October 10, according to the medical examiner’s report. De Leon Alvarado had exited her stopped vehicle on the freeway when she was struck. Emergency crews responded to the scene and pronounced her dead at approximately 6:22 a.m. The medical examiner’s office recorded her cause of death as fatal blunt force injuries sustained in the crash.
The crash prompted the California Highway Patrol to close all southbound lanes of I-805 near East Plaza Boulevard. The agency issued a Sig Alert shortly before 7 a.m. and urged drivers to use alternate routes while officers worked the scene. Caltrans reported that the southbound lanes reopened by 9:40 a.m., more than three hours after the collision occurred.
The California Highway Patrol said the circumstances surrounding the crash remain under investigation and has not released further details about why De Leon Alvarado’s vehicle was stopped on the freeway. The agency has not identified the vehicle or driver that struck her, nor said whether any citations have been issued. It is not yet known what led to the collision.
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.
