A Fillmore man was identified as the person killed in a morning crash on Tuesday in Castaic amid heavy rain in the Santa Clarita Valley, according to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner.
Miguel Hernandez Gonzalez, 53, of Fillmore, was identified as the person who succumbed to his injuries following a two-vehicle crash involving a white Ford Focus and a 2024 Freightliner three-axle truck on State Route 126 eastbound west of Commerce Center Drive.
At 7:32 a.m., California Highway Patrol officers responded to a traffic collision and on arrival found two involved vehicles with major damage, according to a news release provided by Carlos Burgos-Lopez, public information officer for the CHP Newhall-area Office.
The driver of the white Ford Focus, now identified as Hernandez Gonzalez, was unresponsive, with his vehicle found on its side. Los Angeles County Fire Department personnel extricated him and pronounced him deceased at the scene of the collision, the release said.
Hernandez Gonzalez was believed to be traveling at a high rate of speed when he collided with the unoccupied Freightliner truck that was stopped on the side of the road.
The heavy rain is also believed to be a factor in the crash, Burgos-Lopez said in a brief phone call with The Signal on Wednesday morning.
CHP Newhall officers responded to 57 traffic collisions from as early as 7 a.m. until mid-day Wednesday, many of them due to the rain, Burgos-Lopez said.
Those crashes included areas of Interstate 5, State Route 14, SR 126, SR 138, as well as the I-210 and SR-118 areas in the San Fernando Valley that are also patrolled by the Newhall office.
