CHULA VISTA, Calif. (KGTV) – One month after a collision killed a 79-year-old man on his daily walk in Chula Vista, his family is making an appeal for answers \u2014 and pushing back on details emerging from the investigation.<\/p>\n
Tony Esquivel, a retired probation officer and great-grandfather of 4, was on his regular morning walk when he began crossing Lane Avenue at MacKenzie Creek Road. Police say he was struck by a southbound Nissan Frontier just before 11 a.m. on a Monday morning. Esquivel was transported to a hospital, where he died.<\/p>\n
The 57-year-old driver remained at the scene. Police say alcohol and drugs are not believed to be factors. The investigation is ongoing.<\/p>\n
Esquivel’s daughter, Angelica Hamelitz, says the loss has devastated her family.<\/p>\n
“My dad is the glue that held our family together. This is a tremendous loss,” Hamelitz said. “Pure agony and a total loss.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hamelitz describes her father as funny, someone who doted on his grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and an unapologetic rule follower.<\/p>\n
“Everything was about follow the rules and do what is right, even when nobody’s watching,” Hamelitz said.<\/p>\n
That’s why she takes issue with the driver’s account of the crash.<\/p>\n
“The driver is claiming my dad came out of nowhere,” Hamelitz said.<\/p>\n
When asked whether that claim fits with the man she knew, Hamelitz was direct.<\/p>\n
“Absolutely not,” Hamelitz said. “No, he would stand and look and look \u2026 and even if he saw a car, he would still be waiting. He used to get mad at us about jaywalking.”<\/p>\n
Hamelitz says she was told there are no witnesses, and it is unclear whether surveillance video exists. She is hoping someone will come forward with information about the crash.<\/p>\n
“A life was lost. We want closure, to know what really happened. We want justice served as well,” Hamelitz said.<\/p>\n
Anyone with information on the crash is asked to contact the Chula Vista Police Department Traffic Bureau at 619-476-5303.<\/p>\n
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHULA VISTA, Calif. (KGTV) – One month after a collision killed a 79-year-old man on his daily walk…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":425155,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[13856,8296,72742,74,76,75],"class_list":["post-425154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-accident","tag-fatal-crash","tag-pedestrian-crash","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425154","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=425154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}