Santa Rosa police find teen pedestrian at fault in crash

A 14-year-old boy hit by a vehicle in a west Santa Rosa crosswalk was at fault in the collision that injured him one month ago, Santa Rosa police officials said Wednesday.

A witness told police that Adan Morales Curiel, 14, of Santa Rosa activated the overhead pedestrian lights as he was stepping into the mid-block crosswalk on West Third Street near Stony Point Road, which didn’t give the oncoming motorist time to stop, Sgt. Ryan Corcoran said. The collision occurred just before 6 p.m. Dec. 4 at Brockhurst Drive.

Police determined the boy did not practice due care for his safety, an infraction under a vehicle code that discusses pedestrians leaving the curb suddenly and entering the path of “a vehicle that is so close as to constitute an immediate hazard.”

Corcoran said it’s common for the traffic unit to determine the pedestrian was at fault. The sergeant said that the marked crosswalk and pedestrian lights could give people a false sense of security but pedestrians still need to make sure motorists see them and have time to stop.

“We have a lot of collisions where pedestrians do not actually look to make sure the vehicle is yielding,” Corcoran said.

The driver Luis Alejandro Delgado, 24, of Windsor stopped immediately and cooperated with the investigation, Corcoran said.

Corcoran said that they rarely cite people for infractions not witnessed by an officer, and they would not be citing the boy. The collision’s circumstances did not rise to the level of a misdemeanor violation.

Curiel, an Analy High School student, was knocked unconscious and taken to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital with what were initially said to be potentially life-threatening injuries, police said. He was flown to Children’s Hospital Oakland where his condition improved. A spokeswoman with the Oakland hospital in December said she had no information about Curiel.

Corcoran said that police were given few details about the boy’s injuries, and that once it was determined that he would survive, they have not learned anything further about his condition.

You can reach Staff Writer Julie Johnson at 521-5220 or julie.johnson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jjpressdem.