A driver struck two girls walking in a crosswalk toward a Friday night football game at Downey High School, killing one and leaving the other with serious injuries. The crash happened on the 1100 block of Coffee Road in Modesto just before 8:50 p.m., and officers who happened to be stationed nearby for the game were the first to reach the girls and begin CPR.
According to CBS Sacramento, the vehicle was traveling south on Coffee Road when it struck the two girls as they crossed. Both were rushed to nearby hospitals, where one girl later died from her injuries while the other remained hospitalized. The outlet reports the driver is cooperating with investigators, and police have not determined what led to the crash.
Per ABC10, officers stationed at Downey High School for the game were able to reach the crash site immediately after the 8:49 p.m. call and administer CPR to both victims before paramedics arrived. CBS reported that the driver was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Modesto police are seeking surveillance video as part of the investigation.
A Legal Duty to Yield
Under California Vehicle Code § 21950, motorists are required to yield the right-of-way to pedestrians crossing within any marked or unmarked crosswalk and must exercise due care by reducing speed, according to Justia Law. It remains unclear whether that duty factors into the ongoing investigation, since police have not yet said what led to the crash.
The Coffee Road crash comes 22 days after three elementary school students and an adult woman were hit by a vehicle in a crosswalk while walking to Eisenhut Elementary School on September 17, an incident covered by CBS Sacramento. That morning crash near the school saw three children airlifted to hospitals. It followed an especially grim stretch for the city: on October 2, Modesto recorded two separate fatal pedestrian collisions within a single 24-hour period, including a fatal hit-and-run downtown, as reported by CBS News.
Coffee Road's Place in Modesto's Traffic Safety Push
The corridor where Friday's crash occurred has already drawn municipal attention. Modesto began installing automated red-light enforcement cameras in March 2026 along high-risk stretches of Coffee Road, including the intersections at Briggsmore and Sylvan avenues, as Hoodline previously reported. The following month, the Modesto City Council adopted a Vision Zero Resolution and accepted the Safe Streets and Roads for All Action Plan, setting a goal of cutting severe and fatal traffic collisions by half by 2045.
A City of Modesto report from May 2026 identified low-visibility nighttime conditions as a primary driver of severe pedestrian accidents citywide, while unsafe speed was cited in 11% of crashes. Friday's collision occurred after dark, around 8:50 p.m. The city recorded 110 pedestrian collisions resulting in eight fatalities in 2023, and California Office of Traffic Safety data has ranked Modesto second among comparable California cities for injury and fatal traffic crashes.
Major crash reconstructions in Modesto fall to the police department's Traffic Unit, a specialized team made up of one sergeant, five officers, and one community service officer. The cause of Friday's crash remains under investigation.
