Authorities have publicly identified three people who lost their lives last week in San Diego County traffic crashes.
The most recent death occurred Friday in the far southeastern reaches of the region, according to the county Medical Examiner’s Office. About 9:45 p.m. that day, 67-year-old Maxwell Corotis of San Diego was mortally injured in a two-vehicle collision on Old Highway 80 at Tierra Del Sol Road in Boulevard, the agency reported. Corotis died at the scene of the crash.
The same evening, a pedestrian was fatally injured in a hit-and-run in northern San Diego County. Freddie Olmeda, 31, was struck by a vehicle on West Ninth Avenue near Redwood Street in Escondido about 8:30 p.m., according to the medical examiner. Following the deadly impact, the motorist fled, police reported. Paramedics took Olmeda to Palomar Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead shortly after arrival.
Officers found the suspected vehicle that had struck the victim abandoned a short distance away from the site of the crash, according to the Escondido Police Department. Investigators believe that a second vehicle also might have hit Olmeda, the city agency reported.
Early Thursday afternoon, a solo crash on state Route 52 near Tierrasanta claimed the life of a San Diego woman. Nicole Kapule, 38, was behind the wheel of a westbound SUV that veered off the freeway and struck a concrete barrier east of Santo Road shortly before 1 p.m., according to the medical examiner and the California Highway Patrol. An ambulance crew took Kapule to Sharp Memorial Hospital, where she succumbed to her injuries about an hour after the crash, the county agency reported.