{"id":255322,"date":"2026-04-07T06:46:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T06:46:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/255322\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T06:46:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T06:46:21","slug":"mother-child-killed-in-suspected-dui-crash-into-fresno-canal-identified","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/255322\/","title":{"rendered":"Mother, child killed in suspected DUI crash into Fresno canal identified"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 41-year-old woman and her 9-year-old son drowned<\/a> early Monday in a canal after their vehicle was struck by a suspected DUI driver in Fresno as they were returning home from a family Easter gathering in Madera.<\/p>\n

Fresno Police Chief Mindy Casto in an update Monday afternoon said the woman had exited southbound Highway 41 at McKinley Avenue and was making a left turn near Fresno Street around 2 a.m. when a driver in a Honda Pilot allegedly ran a red light and broadsided her vehicle.<\/p>\n

The force of the crash sent the woman\u2019s Dodge SUV across multiple lanes of traffic, over a median, and into a nearby canal.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the vehicle landed in the canal, it floated about 500 feet downstream before coming to rest,\u201d Casto said.<\/p>\n

The driver of the Honda Pilot fled the scene, according to police.<\/p>\n

Crews from the Fresno Fire Department responded with multiple units, including water rescue teams. Firefighters pulled the woman from the submerged SUV and immediately began CPR.<\/p>\n

She was taken to a hospital in critical condition but later died, police confirmed.<\/p>\n

The Fresno County Coroner\u2019s Office identified the mother and son as Martha Hernandez and Adrian Hernandez.<\/p>\n

Authorities initially believed only one person was in the vehicle. However, while officers were at the hospital family members asked about the woman\u2019s son, prompting a renewed search.<\/p>\n

Fire crews searched the submerged vehicle but did not find the boy inside, or after it was pulled from the canal.<\/p>\n

Drones were later used to locate his body approximately two miles downstream near Ferger Avenue and Arroyo Street.<\/p>\n

A witness told The Bee that her brother saw the crash while driving to work.<\/p>\n

According to her, he reported that the suspect vehicle was traveling at a high rate of speed before impact and caused the victim\u2019s SUV to veer off the roadway and into the canal. He provided dashcam footage to investigators, she said.<\/p>\n

The driver remained outstanding Monday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Anyone with information about the crash is asked to contact Fresno police at 559-621-7000.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A woman died after her vehicle went into a Fresno, California canal on Monday, April 6, 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 41-year-old woman and her 9-year-old son drowned early Monday in a canal after their vehicle was struck…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":255323,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,38458,114,113,3695,113077,13116,178],"class_list":{"0":"post-255322","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fresno","8":"tag-fresno","9":"tag-fresno-county-coroner","10":"tag-fresno-headlines","11":"tag-fresno-news","12":"tag-fresno-police","13":"tag-honda-pilot","14":"tag-mindy-casto","15":"tag-vehicle"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255322\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}