REGION — Authorities have publicly identified five people who lost their lives to San Diego-area traffic accidents over the first three weeks of the new year — all but one of them on the same day.
The most recent of the roadway deaths, a hit-and-run that killed a 6- year-old boy, occurred at about 3:45 p.m. Saturday in Pacific Beach, according to the county Medical Examiner’s Office.
The victim, Hudson O’Loughlin of San Diego, was riding his bicycle on a sidewalk when he crossed an alley off the 4000 block of Ingraham Street and was hit by a car, according to the county agency and police.
Paramedics took Hudson to Rady Children’s Hospital, where he was pronounced dead shortly after arrival.
Following the fatal impact, the motorist fled, officials said. The woman who allegedly had been driving the vehicle that struck the child, 32-year-old Tiffany Sanchez, was later arrested on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter, hit-and-run causing death and driving without a license, San Diego police reported.
A little more than an hour before that traffic fatality took place, two people died when a tow truck struck a disabled sedan on Interstate 5 in the far northern reaches of the county, according to the medical examiner.
Killed at the scene of the wreck on the northbound side of the freeway near Aliso Creek Rest Area were 64-year-old Los Angeles resident Elliot Freier, who had been driving the car, and his passenger, Cora Perez, also 64, according to the county agency, which did not release the latter victim’s community of residence.
About 13 hours earlier, a 21-year-old pedestrian was fatally struck by a car on Interstate 8 in El Cajon.
Naryon Esplain of Kaibeto, Arizona, was walking on the freeway near Mollison Avenue for unknown reasons when a westbound 2021 Toyota Venza hit him shortly before 1:30 a.m. Saturday, according to the medical examiner and California Highway Patrol. Esplain died at the scene of the accident.
On Jan. 5, Robert Sheehan, 63, was gravely injured in a motorcycle crash at Ted Williams Parkway and Twin Peaks Road in his hometown of Poway, according to the medical examiner. Paramedics took Sheehan to Palomar Medical Center in Escondido, where he died 11 days later, the county agency reported.
