REGION — Authorities today publicly identified seven people killed in recent weeks in San Diego-area traffic collisions.
The most recent of the deadly crashes, a double fatality, occurred shortly before 1 a.m. Sunday, when a Volkswagen Eos sedan crashed into the back of a Jeep Liberty on a South Bay freeway transition ramp, according to the county Medical Examiner’s Office and California Highway Patrol.
The collision on the connector from westbound state Route 54 to southbound Interstate 5 sent the Jeep plunging off the bridge and into the Sweetwater River below. Killed in the crash were the driver of the SUV, Ignacio Pedroza, 60, and his passenger, 53-year-old Monica Pedroza, both of Chula Vista, the medical examiner reported.
The relationship between the victims remains unclear, a representative of the county agency said Tuesday.
The man driving the Volkswagen, Douglas Allen Guyton, 61, was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence and murder, authorities said.
Three days earlier, separate traffic accidents led to two deaths in the San Diego area.
At about 9:45 p.m. Thursday, 20-year-old Christopher Golembieski of Kings Mountain, North Carolina, crashed the motorcycle he was riding on northbound Interstate 5 near L Street in Chula Vista and was then struck by several vehicles, according to the county agency. Golembieski died at the scene.
At about 2 a.m. that day, 30-year-old Charles Welcome was hit by a car while standing in the roadway in the 4300 block of West Point Loma Boulevard in Point Loma Heights, the medical examiner reported. Welcome died before paramedics could take him to a hospital.
A pedestrian was killed in Kearny Mesa on March 18. At about 7:30 a.m. that day, a vehicle struck Jeffrey Ramsey Jr., 35, on eastbound state Route 52 near Convoy Street, according to the county agency. Paramedics took Ramsey to Sharp Memorial Hospital, where he died from his injuries nine days later.
Shortly after 3:30 p.m. on March 11, William Roth, 86, was gravely injured in his hometown of Escondido when the car he was driving collided with another vehicle at South Iris Lane and West El Norte Parkway, the medical examiner reported. Roth died at Palomar Medical Center four days later.
On March 10, a school bus hit 69-year-old Rene Steiner of San Diego at Paseo Montalban and Via Cima Bella in Rancho Peñasquitos as he was walking his dogs, according to the county agency. Steiner was hospitalized before being transferred to a La Mesa hospice facility, where he died Saturday.
Steiner’s pets were not injured, police said.
