A 54-year-old Hemet man was killed shortly after 2 a.m. Friday when his vehicle crashed at the intersection of Ramona Expressway and Seventh Street in San Jacinto, an industrial stretch of road bordering a dry wash west of the Soboba Reservation. Alex Mancia Caceres was pronounced dead at the scene, and the circumstances that led to the crash remain unclear.
Patrol deputies and paramedics were called to the scene after passing motorists spotted the wrecked vehicle, according to MyNewsLA.com. There was no immediate indication of what caused the crash, and no further details about the vehicle or any other people involved have been released.
Investigators Seek Witnesses
Anyone with information about the crash is being asked to contact the sheriff's San Jacinto station at 951-654-2701, per the same report. The stretch of Ramona Expressway near Seventh Street sits in a largely industrial pocket of San Jacinto, isolated enough that it was passing drivers, rather than a 911 call from the scene, who first alerted authorities to the wreckage.
A Road Long Flagged for Safety Concerns
The stretch of roadway has drawn scrutiny beyond this crash. The Riverside County Transportation Commission notes that the Ramona Expressway segment of the Mid County Parkway experiences a high rate of vehicular collisions, according to the Riverside County Transportation Commission. The agency is undertaking safety and roadway improvements along an 8.6-mile segment of the expressway running from Warren Road to about a mile east of Rider Street.
Those planned upgrades include adding a travel lane in each direction and constructing a new bridge over the San Jacinto River, with construction expected to run from early 2026 through 2028, the commission says.
No further information about the cause of the crash or the vehicle involved had been released as of Friday. Caceres's death remains under investigation.
