SAN JOSE – A pedestrian who died after being hit by a driver earlier this week in East San Jose has been identified as 54-year-old San Jose resident Laura Patricia Ortega Bautista, according to the Santa Clara County Medical Examiner-Coroner’s Office.
The collision was reported just after 5 p.m. Tuesday near Leeward Drive and Arden Way. San Jose police said an investigation revealed Ortega Bautista was walking across Leeward in a marked crosswalk when a motorist in a 2005 Nissan SUV traveling east hit her.
The driver stopped at the scene. Ortega Bautista, meanwhile, was taken to an area hospital with life-threatening injuries. Police on Wednesday morning announced she had died.
Ortega Bautista’s death added to one of the deadliest days on city streets in recent memory. A hit-and-run driver killed a woman early Tuesday near South Jackson and Kammerer avenues in East San Jose, and a man died later that morning when he crashed his car into a tree near Santa Teresa Boulevard and San Ignacio Avenue in South San Jose.
As of Thursday afternoon, a total of 37 people had been killed in collisions on city streets this year. Pedestrians accounted for 22 of those deaths. The city is on pace to surpass the 60 traffic deaths recorded last year, which itself was a 25-year peak matched in 2015 and 2019.
Source: www.mercurynews.com