An adult male pedestrian was struck and killed by a box truck on Air Expressway in Adelanto just after midnight Sunday, in almost the exact same stretch of roadway where a separate two-vehicle crash had critically injured a driver only hours before. San Bernardino County Sheriff's deputies were called to the scene east of Jonathan Street around 12:07 a.m. after reports of a vehicle colliding with a pedestrian.
Deputies arrived to find the man lying in the roadway and rendered aid, but fire personnel pronounced him dead at the scene, according to VVNG, citing Sheriff's spokeswoman Jenny Smith. The box truck driver stopped at the intersection of Air Expressway and Adelanto Road, remained at the scene, and cooperated with investigators, the outlet reported. The pedestrian's identity had not been released as of publication, and the investigation remains ongoing, with authorities saying further details will be released as they become available.
Second Serious Crash on the Same Stretch in Hours
The fatal strike happened within several hundred feet of an earlier two-vehicle collision on Air Expressway near Adelanto Road, reported around 7:30 p.m. the previous evening, which left one driver critically injured. That crash, detailed in Hoodline's earlier coverage, involved a white Honda CR-Z and a white Nissan Sentra, with the Nissan driver airlifted to a regional trauma center. Emergency crews had been working the same corridor just hours before deputies responded to the deadly pedestrian strike.
Air Expressway is no ordinary side street. The corridor carries roughly 21,000 vehicles a day connecting U.S. Route 395 to Interstate 15, according to the City of Victorville's FY2027 Capital Improvement Program, cited via OpenGov. The road also functions as a primary commercial truck route serving the Southern California Logistics Airport and the nearby 400-acre Adelanto Gateway Logistics Center, generating heavy daily volumes of box trucks and freight traffic through the area, per the Yaghmai Law Firm.
A Road With a Troubled History
This isn't the first deadly crash on this stretch of Air Expressway. Back in March 2019, a head-on collision near George Boulevard killed 21-year-old Adelanto resident Virgil Solis after his car crossed into oncoming traffic, according to VVNG's prior reporting. The corridor has long served both local commuters and high-speed freight traffic moving between the Victor Valley's industrial hubs.
Because the fatal strike happened just after midnight, visibility and speed are likely factors investigators will weigh. Research from UC Berkeley's SafeTREC shows that dusk, nighttime, and early morning hours carry the highest risk for pedestrian deaths statewide, largely due to reduced driver visibility and faster travel speeds overnight, as cited by Car Crash Lawyer California. Dark conditions significantly cut down on driver reaction time and stopping distance, the same analysis notes.
How California Law Treats Crossings Like This
Under California Vehicle Code Section 21954, pedestrians who cross a roadway outside a marked or unmarked intersection crosswalk must yield to vehicles that are so near as to constitute an immediate hazard, even as drivers retain a legal duty to exercise due care for pedestrian safety, according to the Shouse Law Group. California law also includes provisions concerning pedestrian crossings.
It remains unclear whether pedestrian-crossing statutes will factor into how investigators ultimately determine causation in Sunday's crash.
A County With a Grim Pedestrian Safety Record
San Bernardino County recorded 120 pedestrian fatalities in 2023, the second-highest total among all 58 California counties behind only Los Angeles County, according to research from UC Berkeley's SafeTREC. Countywide, there were 213 total traffic fatalities and 14,743 combined injuries and deaths from motor vehicle crashes in 2025, per San Bernardino County Community Indicators data, even as overall traffic casualties fell 3 percent from the year before.
Recent pedestrian fatalities across the High Desert include the death of 60-year-old Mary Handford on US-395 in Adelanto. Investigators have not released the identity of the man killed on Air Expressway, and the investigation remains active as authorities continue gathering information.
