A 15-year-old San Bernardino girl was struck and killed while crossing East Highland Avenue near Guthrie Street last Tuesday evening, and her family is now pushing the city to install a traffic signal at the intersection where she died. Raylynn Ayala was walking across the roadway on September 1, 2026, when she was hit by a vehicle, according to official records from the San Bernardino County Sheriff-Coroner Department. She was pronounced dead at a hospital just over an hour later, at 7:28 p.m.
A traffic collision involving a pedestrian was reported at Highland Avenue and Guthrie Street. The driver remained at the scene after the crash, and available information has not specified the vehicle's direction of travel or the circumstances leading up to the collision. The pedestrian crash remains under investigation.
According to a petition launched by Ayala's family on Change.org, she was crossing East Highland Avenue and Guthrie Street to pick up her younger brother from a nearby middle school at the time she was struck. Community members who signed onto the petition describe the intersection as unsignalized and lacking a protected crosswalk, forcing students and other pedestrians to cross multiple lanes of high-speed traffic on foot.
A School Crossing With No Signal
The crash site sits near Colonel Joseph C. Rodriguez PREP Academy, a public middle school serving grades 6 through 8 at 1985 Guthrie Street North. The San Bernardino City Unified School District notes the campus was named a 2026 California Distinguished School, underscoring how many families rely on the surrounding streets for foot traffic to and from campus.
Residents behind the petition say the uncontrolled crossing is especially dangerous for kids walking to and from school. The petition is asking the city to conduct a safety study and install either a traffic signal or a pedestrian hybrid beacon at the intersection.
Development Plans Loom Nearby
Just weeks before the crash, on August 19, the San Bernardino Mayor and City Council selected Panorama Development to redevelop the nearby 17.61-acre Arden Guthrie site, according to the City of San Bernardino. The city-owned land is slated for major commercial development, raising open questions about how additional traffic generated by the project could affect an already busy corridor that currently lacks basic pedestrian infrastructure at Guthrie Street.
The city has previously secured federal money to address safety along the Highland Avenue corridor. In September 2024, U.S. Representative Pete Aguilar announced a $5,279,592 federal grant through the Safe Streets and Roads for All program, funded via the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, to upgrade five high-risk locations in San Bernardino, including nearby Highland Avenue and Eucalyptus Drive, per the Office of Representative Pete Aguilar. It remains unclear whether the city plans a similar engineering review specifically for the Highland Avenue and Guthrie Street intersection where Ayala was killed.
A Region Ranked Among the Nation's Most Dangerous for Walkers
Ayala's death has renewed attention to pedestrian and traffic safety in the region.
Statewide, California continues to face pedestrian-safety concerns, a backdrop that has fueled renewed attention on unsignalized crossings like the one where Ayala died.
For now, the family's petition remains the most visible push for change at Highland Avenue and Guthrie Street, calling on the city to add the signal or crosswalk protection that was not there when Ayala tried to cross. The investigation into the crash itself is ongoing, and no additional details about the driver or the moments leading up to the collision have been released.
