A driver in Santa Ana rear-ended another vehicle near the intersection of Bristol Street and McFadden Avenue, then reversed, changed lanes, and drove off before anyone could exchange information. Traffic investigators are now asking the public for help identifying the driver, described as an adult Hispanic male between 40 and 50 years old who is bald.
Police Release License Plate, Ask Public for Tips
According to a Santa Ana Police Department post shared on Facebook, the fleeing driver's vehicle carries license plate number 5TRK963. The department is asking anyone with information to contact Police Service Officer D. Jauregui by phone at (714) 245-8209 or by email at [email protected]. The post, tagged with #TrafficThursday, #SantaAnaPD, and #SAPDTraffic, reminds drivers that a routine collision can quickly turn into a criminal matter once someone chooses to flee rather than stop.
Police Service Officers like Jauregui are part of a civilian staffing push the department made after a record 31 traffic fatalities in 2024, hiring non-sworn personnel to write collision reports and assist traffic detectives so that sworn motor officers can stay focused on active enforcement, according to Behind the Badge. That staffing matters given the sheer volume of cases: Santa Ana traffic investigators respond to roughly 4,000 vehicle collisions a year, and the city averages about five hit-and-run crashes every day, per the same report.
Why This Intersection Keeps Showing Up in Crash Reports
The stretch around Bristol Street and McFadden Avenue is no stranger to trouble. City traffic studies and legal safety analyses have flagged it as one of Santa Ana's most crash-prone intersections, a junction made more hazardous by heavy commuter and transit traffic and its proximity to Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School, according to CZ Law. Santa Ana police have also positioned DUI and driver's license checkpoints along the Bristol Street and McFadden Avenue corridors, a tactic informed by historical crash data and heavy nighttime traffic volumes, per New Santa Ana.
The city has been trying to get ahead of the problem. In 2024 Santa Ana folded its Safe Mobility Plan into the Santa Ana Vision Zero Plan, an effort to evaluate high-collision corridors and guide targeted engineering fixes along major arterials including Bristol Street and McFadden Avenue, the city says. The push comes against a grim backdrop: 2023 data from the California Office of Traffic Safety, cited in that plan, ranked Santa Ana fourth among the state's 15 largest cities for bicycle-related injuries and fatalities and fifth highest for pedestrian injuries and fatalities.
Fleeing the Scene Carries Its Own Legal Risk
Under California law, any driver involved in a collision must stop and exchange identifying information with the other party, regardless of who caused the crash, according to the Goldstein Law Group. Rear-ending someone or disputing fault does not excuse leaving the scene. Under California Vehicle Code Section 20002, fleeing an accident that causes only property damage is a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in county jail and fines of up to $1,000, per DCD LAW.
Residents can also report non-injury hit-and-run incidents through the department's Citizens Online Police Reporting System when no immediate suspect information is available, the city notes. It's a similar approach to how investigators worked a fatal hit-and-run in June that killed a 60-year-old bicyclist at Warner Avenue and Standard Avenue, a case Hoodline covered in its earlier reporting on that crash, where investigators leaned heavily on community tips and surveillance video to track down leads.
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