Authorities have publicly identified seven people killed over the last several weeks in San Diego County traffic crashes.
The most recent crash claimed the life of a 67-year-old San Bernardino County man last Saturday, according to the county Medical Examiner’s Office. Bernard Nietvelt of Redlands was struck by a tractor-trailer about 10:15 a.m. after crashing a motorcycle on state Route 78 east of San Felipe Road in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, the agency reported. Nietvelt died at the scene.
Two days earlier, a predawn hit-and-run killed a pedestrian in his hometown of Oceanside. About 4:45 a.m. on April 16, a westbound 2005 Toyota Tacoma struck Gregory Means, 76, on Mission Avenue, just east of Mesa Drive, according to police and the medical examiner. Following the impact, the motorist continued driving and left the area. Means died at the scene.
On the morning of April 12, Raphael Garcia Ramirez, 21, was driving an SUV that crashed into a wall in a commercial parking lot on University Avenue in La Mesa, the county agency reported. An ambulance crew took him to Sharp Memorial Hospital in San Diego, where he was pronounced shortly after 9 a.m. that day.
The previous day, a motorist was killed in a fiery freeway crash near Sweetwater Reservoir. Shortly after 3:30 p.m. April 11, Christopher Diego, 32, was driving east in a Subaru WRX that veered out of a traffic lane on state Route 54 east of SR-125 in Spring Valley, struck a tow truck parked alongside the roadway and became engulfed in flames, according to the medical examiner and California Highway Patrol. Diego died at the site of the wreck.
Roughly 13 hours earlier, a 25-year-old motorcyclist was killed in a solo freeway crash in San Marcos. Resident Michael Hatzioannou was heading west on SR-78 when the motorcycle he was riding went off the road west of Woodland Parkway and struck a portable message sign, the county agency reported. Hatzioannou died at the scene.
On April 10, Cresencio Molano Canseco, 57, was hit by a car on Douglas Drive in Oceanside, according to the medical examiner. Molano Canseco, a resident, died at the scene.
Two days earlier, another Oceanside traffic crash fatally injured a 23-year-old man. Terence Sautia of Vista was riding a motorcycle that veered off the road on North Avenue at Autumn Drive and struck a concrete pillar about 4:45 p.m. April 8, the county agency reported. Paramedics took Sautia to Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla, where he died nine days later.