Taft, CA, October 9 – The Kern County Coroner’s Office has identified Martiniano Hernandez Zamora, 22, of Taft, as the third person killed in a two-vehicle crash on Highway 119 just south of Harrison Street on September 26. Zamora was driving a Ford Ranger pickup truck north on the highway when it collided head-on with an oncoming Mercedes, according to investigators. The crash also killed the Mercedes driver and a passenger. The California Highway Patrol continues to investigate the collision.
Taft Officials Identify Third Victim of Fatal Highway 119 Crash
The Mercedes involved in the crash was driven by Jose Ivan Martinez Birrueta, 29, of Bakersfield. A passenger in the Mercedes, Nathan Steve Martinez, 26, of Martinez, was also killed. Both men died alongside Zamora, bringing the total number of people killed in the crash to three. Kern County officials had already identified Birrueta and Martinez before releasing Zamora’s name.
The California Highway Patrol is investigating the head-on collision between the pickup truck and the Mercedes. The agency has not released findings on how the two vehicles came to collide on Highway 119, and no cause has been made public. The investigation remained open at the time the coroner’s office announced Zamora’s identity.
Several details about the crash have not been released. The California Highway Patrol has not said what caused the pickup truck and Mercedes to collide, whether speed or impairment played a role, or whether either driver was cited. The exact time of the collision has also not been made public. The investigation remains ongoing, and authorities have not indicated when further findings might be released.
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.
