Richmond, CA, September 24 – A 65-year-old man died Thursday morning after he was struck by a vehicle near an intersection in Richmond, according to authorities. Richmond police officers and paramedics responded after receiving reports of the crash and found the man with severe injuries. Paramedics pronounced him dead at the scene, and a family member has since publicly identified him as a loved one.
Richmond Man, 65, Dies After Being Struck by Vehicle Near Intersection
According to authorities, the crash happened around 6:30 a.m. on September 24, 2026, near the intersection of Maricopa Avenue and 23rd Street in Richmond. It was at that intersection that Richmond police officers and paramedics arrived and located the man after reports of the crash reached them. The family member who came forward identified him as Douglas Vargas, a San Francisco native.
The family member also said Vargas may have been collecting aluminum cans in the area when he was struck, according to the family member. That account has not been confirmed by Richmond police or any other authority, and no official description of the man’s activity at the time of the crash has been released. It remains the only publicly available account of what he might have been doing.
Several other details about the crash have not been made public. Authorities have not released a description of the vehicle involved, said whether the driver remained at the scene, or indicated whether any citations have been issued. It is also unclear whether the crash remains under active investigation. What led to the collision at that intersection has not been explained.
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.
