33 people died on Oakland’s dangerous roads in 2023

For the fourth consecutive year, more than 30 people died on Oakland’s dangerous roads in 2023. 

According to city records, the causes of most traffic-related fatalities have been consistent over the years: speeding, red-light running, and other dangerous driver behavior incited by poorly designed infrastructure. 

Few other cities in California suffer similar numbers of deadly collisions. The California Office of Traffic Safety consistently ranks Oakland among the state’s 10 most dangerous cities for drivers, pedestrians, and bicyclists. 

Oakland residents are keenly aware of this danger. Since The Oaklandside started reporting on traffic violence in the summer of 2022, we’ve received hundreds of emails asking us to report on road conditions and menacing driver behavior. Many residents fear walking in their neighborhood, especially on West and East Oakland streets, some of which are designated by the city as “high-injury corridors” because of how frequently someone is hurt or killed. 

The people who suffer the most are those who lost loved ones from this violence. 

Over the last year of reporting, I’ve witnessed mothers standing shell-shocked on a sidewalk where their child perished, holding photos that reminded them of the person they lost. I’ve seen a friend sing a solemn hymn to give a grandmother the strength she needed to face the breathless tragedy of losing her granddaughter. I’ve heard of unsent last texts, final dinners, and new careers dashed instantly by crashing steel and unforgiving concrete. 

Just like last year, we wanted to name everyone who died on the city’s roads, to give the community a sense of the loss that occurs with every crash, and to underscore the urgency with which advocates, city leaders, and others are working to make roads safer. 

We attempted to identify and interview family members of each of the deceased. We wanted to know what these people cared about, who they loved, and how they experienced the world. In some cases we were unable to locate family members or close friends, in other cases we didn’t hear back from anyone, and some people told us they were hurting too much to speak. This year, many people declined an interview because their loss was too painful to discuss. In each case, we did our best to honor the individual, but these are very brief views into the life of whole, complicated persons.

We also describe as best we can how these people died because the circumstances surrounding their deaths are being intensely debated by policymakers, advocates, engineers, and others working right now to improve the safety of city streets. As noted in last year’s list, we  are not publishing specific details about the injuries a person suffered unless the family specifically asks us, in order to illustrate how violent and damaging a collision can be. 

The following list only includes people who died on city roads—not on highways. Oakland is in charge of streets, while the state and its transportation department, Caltrans, are in charge of highways.

If someone you know is included in this list and you’d like to say something about who they were, you can email me at jose@oaklandside.org. 

When we asked one father who lost his child what they thought this type of article should accomplish, they simply asked the readers to travel to the location where one of the deaths occurred and to think about losing their loved ones. Maybe that way, the dad said, people would think twice about speeding on the streets. 

Jose Manuel Reyes Ayala, Feb. 2

The 46-year-old local carpenter with a big family fell from his bicycle while riding in the crosswalk at High Street and the 580 entrance on January 26, 2023. Reyes Ayala suffered a blunt-force head injury and could not recover in the hospital, dying a week later, according to public records. 

Residents living near this location told local traffic safety advocates they avoid using the crosswalk because drivers constantly speed through it onto I-580. The Traffic Violence Rapid Response group held a vigil for Reyes Ayala on Feb. 24. Reyes Ayala’s death was the only one in Oakland from a bicycle fall in 2023, according to public records. 

Born in Baja, California to Jose Rosario Reyes and Maria de Jesus Ayala, Reyes Ayala was the father of two who enjoyed cooking, skateboarding, and riding his dirt bike. He loved playing with animals, including with one of his daughter’s pet rabbits, according to his obituary. 

“Above all, Jose loved his mother and always put her first. His family was very important to him, and the love he had for his daughters was unmeasurable,” his obituary states. “His presence will never be forgotten.”

Reyes Ayala is survived by a large extended family, including his mother, daughters, and sisters.

Tzu-Ta Ko, Feb. 19

A 100-year-old resident of Oakland was killed on his daily morning walk, at 7 a.m., by a driver in a Mini Cooper at 19th Street and Harrison Street near Lake Merritt. According to the Oakland Police Department, Ko died due to head trauma. 

The Oakland police told The Oaklandside they were able to arrest the driver a week later for a hit-and-run 

Ko’s daughter, Shirley Ko, told KTVU that the tight-knit family could not reconcile losing the patriarch in such a violent and sudden manner. 

 “We’re really, really close, so this is really a shock for me,” she said.  

John Dine Jr., Mar. 8

The 23-year-old Oakland resident died after attempting a robbery on a car parked on Acacia Avenue in the Upper Rockridge neighborhood of North Oakland, near Highway 24. According to police, as Dine and another suspect were driving away in a getaway car, they ran into a sidewalk pole and ricocheted into a nearby tree.  

Dine was not wearing a seatbelt and was ejected from the car, suffering blunt force trauma injuries. 

Dine’s grandmother told The Oaklandside that the police had not provided them with a final report about the robbery or the collision. Dine’s mother declined to speak to The Oaklandside. 

Gordon Devere Jacoby, Apr. 2

The 79-year-old was hit and killed while crossing the road near 35th Avenue and MacArthur Boulevard after dining with friends at Ghost Town Brewing in Laurel. 

According to Gordon’s son Peter, a video from a corner store showed the driver who struck his father looking down while the car was moving. The family said Oakland Police determined that Jacoby was at fault because he was not walking within the boundaries of the crosswalk. The driver, who stopped after the collision, cooperated with police and was not charged. 

Gordon Devere Jacoby was a city planner who owned a land development business in the Piedmont neighborhood. Colleagues and customers enjoyed working with him. On person wrote on Jacoby’s obituary page that he was “knowledgeable and greatly respected in his field of planning,” and “was a tireless advocate for his clients.” 

Peter Jacoby said his father loved working and living in Oakland and went out of his way to work in and improve low-income neighborhoods. “He was an amazing citizen of the community,” he said. 

His sudden passing shocked his family. “It is absolutely devastating,” Peter said, noting that even though he and his wife work in health care and commonly see these sorts of injuries, it could not prepare him for the loss of his father. Knowing that his parents were two weeks away from moving to Napa, closer to him, has made the loss even more difficult. Peter told us that the current conditions in Oakland are far too dangerous and worse than when he was a kid growing up here. 

His father’s love for his family was often more important than his sense of comfort, said Peter. During a recent Halloween in Napa, Gordon wore a heavy gorilla suit for hours to walk around with his grandchildren, even though it was nearly 100 degrees. He made everyone laugh despite sweating profusely. 

“He never unzipped the costume, making goofy noises. My kids called him Silly Papa. He was always joking and playing with them. It broke their heart when I told them Silly Papa is gone,” Peter Jacoby said. 

Christopher John Aboudara, Apr. 22

Chris Aboudara was a 51-year-old Alameda resident who died after crashing his Toyota Tacoma pickup into the back of a Maxda CX-9 around 2 a.m. at the intersection of Telegraph Avenue and 27th Street, in the Northgate neighborhood of Oakland. No other persons suffered serious injuries, according to city records. He was wearing a seatbelt at the time of the crash. 

Aboudara’s family told The Oaklandside they are still too much in grief to talk about their loved one’s passing.

Jose Ismael Garcia Perez, Apr. 22

Perez was a 27-year-old Oakland resident and construction worker who died when the vehicle he was a passenger in crashed into a pole near the intersection of Joaquin Miller Road and Skyline Boulevard in the Oakland hills. Garcia Perez was being driven by another young man, 23, who survived the collision. 

The driver had a warrant for his arrest for an unknown charge and told the police at the scene that he had been driving under the influence. 

Garcia Perez was wearing a seatbelt when the car crashed but still suffered blunt injuries to his torso and internal organs, which caused his death. 

The Oaklandside has not been able to reach Garcia Perez’s family members.

Charles Emilio Smith, May 17

Auto mechanic Charles Smith was riding his bike in the crosswalk at 98th Avenue and D Street in East Oakland when he was struck by a speeding car, causing blunt force injuries to his torso. Smith was on his way to a local store to buy food for his family’s cats. 

Eyewitnesses told investigators they saw a driver in a white sedan speed away after the incident. 

“Please, what’s going on with humanity?” Smith’s sister Janie Arellano Miller asked KTVU earlier this year. “It’s unspeakable what we are going through. And it’s not right.”

Commonly known as Carlos, the 50-year-old Oakland resident had a jovial personality as shown in videos provided by his family. 

Part of a Mexican-American and African-American mixed family, Smith grew up with the intuitive ability to repair any hardware, his cousin Tyrell Smith told us. 

“When we were little kids, he could take a radio apart, put the radio back together, and make it work. So, the natural progression was to fix cars. He was always really good at that, could detail them, everything,” he said. Tyrell remembers a green sedan Carlos owned that was especially beautiful. He called it the Batmobile. 

More important for Tyrell was that his cousin was a kind person who enjoyed life, including dancing salsa. 

After having been on the bad end of three hit-and-run collisions and now with his cousin dying on the street, Tyrell Smith said that he’s decided to stop using his bike to get around because it’s too dangerous to do so. 

“People run red lights, run stop signs,” he said. “It’s lawless out here. The police are no help. I’ve been riding a bike since I was six years old. I’m 50-something, and now I just don’t wanna ride a bike in the same city that killed my cousin.”

Ubaldo Galicia Espinoza, May 24

The 45-year-old Oakland resident died while he was walking on East 16th Street and 35th Avenue in the East Oakland Fruitvale neighborhood. 

Not much is known about the collision other than the fact that Espinoza died shortly after being hit. The Oaklandside has not been able to speak to Espinoza’s family. 

Juventino Vicente, May 25

Vicente was a 32-year-old Oakland resident who died from blunt injuries to his body after being hit by a car while he was walking at the 12th Street on-ramp to eastbound I-980 downtown. 

The Oaklandside has not been able to identify or speak with Vicente’s family. 

Joseph James Morehouse, Jun. 3

The 63-year-old Oakland native and resident was walking on the sidewalk near 91st Avenue and International Boulevard when a multi-car collision ended with one car jumping the sidewalk and hitting Morehouse. 

The collision, according to police, was caused by a driver swerving a stolen red Kia Soul and causing another driver, Kveontae WilliamsWade, to lose control of his vehicle. WilliamsWade was arrested at the scene for drunk driving. The Oakland Police have not said whether they found the driver of the stolen Kia.

Morehouse died from blunt force trauma to his chest and a heart laceration. His body was found by a day worker who lived at the house in front of the collision. 

Jeanine Grayson, Morehouse’s niece, was one of the first people on the scene. She told The Oaklandside around the time of a vigil organized by traffic safety activists that the family was in shock. She carried one of his shoes from the crash scene to OPD offices to urge them to more vigorously investigate his death. 

Morehouse was a warehouse worker who lived with his 82-year-old mother about ten blocks away from where he died. 

Grayson told The Oaklandside that the family has been calling OPD repeatedly in the last month about the case to find out the latest but they’re still waiting for news. 

Santu Maya, Jun. 16

Only four months after immigrating from Burma to live with members of her family in Oakland, 73-year-old Santu Maya was killed as she was walking on the crosswalk at Foothill Boulevard and Vicksburg Avenue in East Oakland around 7 p.m. A person speeding in a Black Mercedes hit Maya as she was walking behind her daughter Sanjoo Verma and her grandaughter Arpitha.  The driver fled the scene.

According to a video released by the Oakland Police, Maya appeared to have dropped something on the ground that caused her to pause in the crosswalk. Witnesses said the car threw her into the air. Verma said she held her mother in her arms until she died. Her granddaughter Arpitha called for people to help while her grandmother lay on the ground. 

According to a KRON news report, Verma planned a road trip with her mother to show her around the country. 

When we first spoke to Verma three weeks ago, she heard from the investigator assigned to the case that they knew who the suspect was and were close to arresting him. Verma said she was angry that a person like that was still roaming the streets for months after killing someone. Two weeks later, the police were able to arrest him. 

Verma’s husband, Anil, told us his mother-in-law was “always friendly and supportive.” 

“She was a wonderful woman. If you spent five to ten minutes with her, you’d make friends with her for a long time,” he said. 

Anil told us that Santu grew up in the agriculture fields in the Shan state of upper Burma. In her youth, the family owned a farm that worked cows and other animals. 

Santu also had several brothers and sisters, all of whom are currently still living in Burma.They were horrified to learn what had happened to her. 

The Verma family in Oakland has had a hard time dealing with the loss of the matriarch. Anil said his wife Sanjoo often has nightmares about the crash. They have often tried to stay as calm as possible by keeping her in mind when attending religious services in the East Bay. 

“We go to temple, we do prayers, we try to keep busy,” he said. 

Troy Jermaine Lee, Jun 25

The 39-year-old resident of Alameda died when his car, a Toyota Avalon, collided with a driver in a Toyota Camry in front of 2340 International Boulevard as Lee was making a U-turn at 12:15 a.m.

The driver of the Camry was a 21-year-old man who fled after the collision and was later arrested for a felony hit-and-run and for driving under the influence of alcohol, according to a Mercury News report. 

Donna Lee, Troy’s mother, told The Oaklandside that her son was a “friendly, outgoing person” with a large group of friends, mostly from growing up in Alameda and attending local schools. 

“He had a lot of good close friends, many from Longfellow and Woodstock elementary, from Wood Middle School, and from Encinal High School,” she said. “They still call me to check in on me.”

More than 200 people, including dozens of his friends, attended his funeral at the Central Baptist Church in Alameda, where he grew up attending with his family. 

Troy Lee was also known as a big fan and player of sports, especially baseball and basketball. One of his cherished possessions was a signed basketball by NBA Hall of Famer Jason Kidd, an Oakland native and St. Joseph’s of Alameda star. 

Donna said that Troy was working for a catering business that kept their workers into the night at the time of his passing, and that’s why he was driving home around midnight. She said that it’s been a difficult time dealing with her son’s passing but that “she’s hanging in there.” 

“You have your good days and your bad days. I’ve got a lot of support from my family.” 

Terrence Rashaun Evans, Jul. 1

A 44-year-old Oakland native, Terrence Evans was speeding on a motorcycle at 16th Street and 90th Avenue when he collided with a driver in a Mercedes SUV making a legal U-Turn. 

According to city records, Evans died from a traumatic heart artery rupture. According to a police investigation, he was not wearing a helmet during the collision.

Evans worked in a warehouse in the East Bay. 

Fung Cheung Chu, Jul. 4

At 7 p.m. on July 3, a young man speeding while driving a Ford Challenger in the Fremont neighborhood of Oakland ran a red light at the intersection of Bancroft Avenue and 45th Avenue and hit an Oakland family of three in a Mercedes sedan.

Tony Cheng, 44, his 71-year-old mother Kam Gall Cheng, and 94-year-old grandmother Fung Cheung Chu all suffered injuries. Fung Cheung Chu, the grandmother, died a day later from her injuries. The driver of the Challenger and his passenger ran from the scene. The passenger was later arrested. 

“I feel terrible. I lost my best thing in the world. Without my mom’s support, I cannot stay in this world,” Gall Cheng told KTVU. 

According to the family, Cheung Chu was in excellent health. In the aftermath of the collision, the Oakland Chinatown Chamber Foundation set up a GoFundMe page to help the family pay for funeral and healthcare expenses, 

The family “should not have to worry about how to make her rest in peace comfortably,” Carl Chan, the President of the Oakland Chinatown Chamber Foundation wrote on the GoFundMe page.

Oprah Cooper, Jul. 5

A 20-year-old student who was attending Laney College and was named by her parents after the talk show legend, Cooper was hit at 85th Avenue and San Leandro Street shortly after midnight. 

According to the Oakland Police, Cooper was a passenger in a car that was hit at the intersection by another driver. The location was not too far from where Cooper worked in security at the Oakland Airport. 

Cooper and her family came to the United States from Namibia five years ago. A GoFundMe page set up by Cooper’s father, Alfred, used a Bible verse to honor her strength and integrity: “God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved; God will help her when morning dawns. God dwells in that city; it cannot be destroyed. From the very break of day, God will protect it. God at your service from crack of dawn.”

Oprah’s father Alfred Cooper said that the loss of his daughter has been a nightmare and that they’ve had to move to Texas temporarily to stop thinking about the injustice of it. 

“She seemed to know everything. She was very intelligent. It is burning my heart,” he said.  

Oprah was Alfred and his wife’s only child. He lived in Oakland for 20 years before moving back to Namibia about 20 years ago. The South African country is where he met Oprah’s mother and where Oprah grew up. He said that Oprah’s school friends back in Namibia were shocked to hear what happened and held a memorial for her. 

Cooper is also upset that the Oakland police told him that the case was closed, even though they never found who hit his daughter and her friend, who survived the collision. 

“This was a young child. And the Police don’t care. And Oakland doesn’t [seem to] care for the people that are dying on the street.” 

Maia Elizabeth Correia, Aug. 12

A 4-year-old child known for her kind and joyful demeanor died after complications from a fall off the bike she was riding with her father at Lake Merritt. 

Maia and her father Jadd were on an early weekend ride around the lake as they approached Hanover Avenue on Lakeshore Avenue when a man parked next to the bike lane opened his car door. The bike riders collided with the door and Maia and her father fell, with Maia hitting her head on the ground. Her father Jadd was told by paramedics on the scene, and later by a nurse over the phone, to keep an eye on her, but that she was likely fine. The next morning, Maia began vomiting and within days, Maia fell into a coma from a brain blood hemorrhage. 

Maia’s family was devastated by her loss. 

Her grandfather, Richard McCracken, told The Oaklandside at a vigil at the collision’s location that they were having a difficult time believing she was gone.  

“I thought I had a great life. I have a great family. And then this accident happened, and whatever world I had was messed up. I can’t describe what it feels like. It’s the worst thing that’s ever happened to us,” said McCracken. 

During the vigil, traffic advocates called for better road conditions around the lake, specifically for a protected concrete bike lane that would have made it impossible for an open door to reach a cyclist. Months after the vigil, which more than 40 people attended, the Oakland Department of Transportation announced they would work to make that happen.

Traffic violence advocate George Spies said at the vigil that it was really hard to reconcile the fact that a dad and his daughter were simply on a sunny bike ride that turned into a nightmare. 

“This helpless little girl, her and her dad were doing everything right. And this happened anyway. It’s a horrible thing and I feel for them and their loss,” he said. 

Maia’s aunt, Sheila McCracken, told us that she thinks about her all the time, especially when she sees her picture all over her house.

“She was such an amazing, sweet girl. Full of life,” said McCracken.

Richard “Ricky” Douglas Burnett, Sep. 8

A 67-year-old unhoused resident of Oakland, Ricky Burnett, was hit in front of 9115 International Boulevard. After falling in the street he was run over by several cars, according to city records. The location is roughly the same spot where Joseph Morehouse died in June after an out-of-control driver hit him. 

Miguel Angel Montoya Vasquez, Sep. 16

The 26-year-old furniture mover was riding a motorcycle with a helmet on when he was involved in a collision with a car on Plymouth Street near the 90th Avenue intersection. 

We have not been able to locate Montoya Vasquez’s family. 

Derrick Shaw and Vera Hampton, Sep. 24

Derrick Shaw, 64, and 67-year-old Vera Hampton were hit at the intersection of 73rd Avenue and Holly Street in East Oakland while they were on their way to church on a calm, Sunday morning. The couple, who were engaged, were inside a white Lexus SUV when a speeding driver in a black Lexus T-boned their car, pushing them off the road and into the yard of a house. The car rolled and ended up on its side. 

A third person with Hampton and Shaw was injured but survived. The driver of the black Lexus was a 25-year-old man who was later arrested.

Guadalupe Briones Mendez, Sep. 26

Guadalupe, or Lupe as she was known to her family, was hit at 54th Avenue and International Boulevard as she walked to the bus median in the evening on September 26. A long-time Oakland resident who had been unhoused for the last 10 years, she was hit first by one car and then was run over by other vehicles until a horrified resident placed a cone near her mutilated body. 

Several witnesses saw the tragedy. The Oakland Police Department later said that the collision that initiated the others was committed by four people driving a stolen car. They all left the car at the scene and fled on foot, and one was later arrested. 

Her sister Hilda Peña told The Oaklandside that after she immigrated from Mexico in the late 90s, Lupe pushed herself to work constantly as a clerk in local shops as a house cleaner to provide income for her family. 

Lupe’s niece Jaqueline Lee said that her aunt was a normal, hard-working person who spent time with her family until she experienced a run of difficult circumstances in the early 2010s. Around that time, her husband was deported to Mexico and was later found dead in a jail there. This led her to depression and addiction eventually, which then made her lose custody of her children. Despite her circumstances, she was still known in the neighborhood in recent years as a nice lady. 

Lee said she was traumatized by thinking that several cars must’ve seen her on the ground as they drove by and over her. “No one was caring enough to drive around her. We are not going to be able to see her because her body is too destroyed,” she said. 

Mara Delaney, Sep. 27

72-year-old Mara Li Delaney had just left a friend’s house when she walked across Seminary Avenue near Oakdale Avenue to catch a Line 45 AC Transit bus on her way to San Francisco. But before getting to the stop, Delaney was hit by a person in a vehicle, throwing her from the road. She was found the next day on the embankment near a Mills College fence by the college’s staff, who called the police. According to the city records, Delaney suffered from blunt impacts to her extremities. 

Emily Odza, whom Delaney had been visiting that day, told us that she was devastated by the loss. Odza said Delaney had great energy and always helped people out with home projects.  

Delaney’s god-daughter Coco said in a GoFundMe post that dealing with the loss was “heartbreaking.” 

Eduardo Benjamin Alcantar, Oct. 1

A Castro Valley resident, Alcantar died at the intersection of Foothill Boulevard and Church Street after he ran a red light in the 2020 Infiniti QX60 SUV he had allegedly stolen. He slammed into a vehicle traveling in the northbound direction and died in the hospital from blunt impact to his head. 

According to county records, Alcantar was not wearing a seatbelt during the collision. He was 34 years old. 

Cesar Ramos, Oct. 6

The 41-year-old man suffered multiple blunt force injuries when he was hit by a San Jose-bound Amtrak train in Fruitvale near the 37th Avenue crossing. 

According to police records, Ramos was walking on the tracks when he was hit around 8:45 a.m. and died instantly. The Oaklandside contacted a member of Ramos’ family but they declined to speak to us because of continuing grief. 

Julie Melissa Johnson, Oct. 15

The 66-year-old Johnson died when she collided with the back of another car on the westbound I-580 onramp in Fruitvale. 

Johnson was driving a Volkswagen Beetle when she ran into a stationary Chevrolet Spark as traffic backed up getting into the freeway. The California Highway Patrol told The San Jose Mercury News that Johnson may have been driving at “an unsafe speed.” 

Johnson was wearing a seat belt at the time of the collision. She died from acute blood loss stemming from aortic and cardiac lacerations that occurred from blunt force trauma. 

Born in Oakland, Johnson recently served as a board member of the Dimond Improvement Association and was a resident of the Dimond District for more than 25 years.

“Julie’s vision for the Dimond is a thriving business district with a variety of cool offerings, including interesting retail and dining experiences. She would love to help usher in more public art and is passionate about retaining some of Dimond’s architectural aspects from the past,” her board statement said in 2020. 

Johnson raised two daughters in the neighborhood and worked as an accountant at Ray’s Electric, one of Oakland’s most in-demand general contractors. 

Friend Kristi Holohan told The Oaklandside Johnson loved working with her colleagues, and the feeling was mutual.  More than 200 people attended her memorial service at The Altenheim, a senior center in Dimond.  

Holohan volunteered with Johnson at neighborhood events, including the Dimond Life Holiday Festival and Oaktoberfest.  

“We dedicated a lot of our time to community-building community and positive events,” Holohan said. “Julie also loved to sew.” Johnson also donated supplies to a youth sewing program run by Holohan.

She also remembered Holohan’s laughter, especially when she got to dress up in a full dirndl outfit for the Oktoberfest celebration.  

“She was so happy. It’s terrible to lose somebody who is so dedicated to the community. It’s emotionally draining,” Holohan said. She plans to install a mural over the next two weeks at the Two Star Market, where she used to volunteer for Thanksgiving. 

The mural at Two Star will include her favorite type of flowers, including a rose that grows in her backyard. 

Luciano Carmona-Garcia, Oct. 25

Described as a loving father by his friends and family, the 42-year-old Hayward resident was walking near the intersection of High Street and International Boulevard around 10:30 p.m when a driver speeding eastbound on International in a Kia Sorrento lost control and hit a Pontiac Vibe sedan. The Pontiac ricocheted into two parked cars, crushing Carmona-Garcia and severing his leg. According to the coroner’s office, blunt force trauma of the torso and lower extremities were the main cause of Carmona-Garcia’s death. 

The driver of the Kia Sorrento fled, and according Carmona-Garcia’s family the case was recently closed. The Oakland Police told The Oaklandside that “no arrests have been made in connection” at this time. 

Friends of Carmona-Garcia told The Oaklandside that his family hired a lawyer to look into the case. 

Kaleb Albert Makepeace, Nov. 8

The 31-year-old Oakland resident was speeding on International Boulevard on his motorcycle when he ran a red light at the 39th Avenue and collided with a truck making a left turn. 

Makepeace’s motorcycle exploded on impact, sending him into the air and toward the corner of the street. Two nearby business owners used fire extinguishers to try to save him, but according to emergency personnel who arrived shortly after the crash, it was too late. He was wearing a helmet at the time but the force of impact was too much. 

The two people whom Makepeace hit were injured and taken to the hospital but did not suffer life-threatening injuries. 

According to his mother, Paula, Makepeace was born in Walnut Creek and grew up in Livermore. Early in his youth, his family found he was bipolar, which made his life difficult and “troubled,” as he tended to have seizures. When he was young, he attended several schools, including the St. Michael Catholic School in Livermore. 

As an adult, Makepace struggled with drugs and alcohol and was living in a sober home in East Oakland at the time of his death. His mother said that in the last four months before he passed, Makepeace was doing “really well” while working with his probation officer. He also looked forward to seeing his son on his 10th birthday in Texas this summer. The whole family, including his mother, brother, and others, had not been together in the same place in eight years. 

“His son is having a hard time as it was the plan to get his parents together,” Paula said. 

The collision also brought back sad memories for her because she had a 16-month-old niece who was hit and killed by a drunk driver while standing next to a car. 

Makepeace was buried at St. Michael’s Catholic Church in the family’s plot.

Joseph Raymond Vaughan, Nov. 10

The 49-year-old Oakland resident died on eastbound 98th Avenue at the southbound I-880 ramp after a driver hit him while he was using a bicycle without a helmet. It is unknown whether he was hit on the curbside of 98th or whether he had biked out onto the roadway. 

Vaughan lived only a few yards away from where he died, near the Columbia Gardens Community Center in East Oakland. 

Fred Hon Lau, Nov. 14

The 71-year-old long-time Oakland resident died when he was hit by a car while walking on a crosswalk at the intersection of 58th Avenue and International Boulevard around 6:15 p.m.

The driver stopped after the collision and cooperated with the police. Lau’s family told The Oaklandside that discussing his passing is “too painful” at the moment. 

Christopher Hamilton Bell, Nov. 18

A 28-year-old East Coast native, Bell’s body was discovered at the I-980 off-ramp near the 12th Street and Brush Street intersection in West Oakland. According to city records, he was struck by several cars while walking on the roadway and was found around 6 a.m. 

According to his mother, Karen Bell, the software engineer had recently stopped working at Twitch, the Amazon-owned gaming company. Earlier in the day, she said that his car had been stolen and had not been found. When Bell’s body was discovered, his credit cards were stolen, and authorities later found that someone had been using them.

Bell was living with his cat Nyla at the Zephyr Gate townhouse community in West Oakland. In his childhood, Bell always had a love for learning, especially about computers. 

“Chris was always a very shy and kind of introverted person, but he loved technology and loved learning how things work,” Karen Bell said. “He would often spend a lot of time working on electronics projects and at [one point] created a handheld Gamecube. It really amazed a lot of his friends and teachers in his high school.”

After high school, Bell attended the University of Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh before deciding to accelerate his tech career by attending the Hack Reactor coding boot camp, a school that helps students learn a variety of modern coding languages in a few short months. Bell quickly gained skills that got him a full-time job as a developer in Baltimore. But last January, he moved back to the Bay Area, this time to Oakland, where he got an apprenticeship and eventually a full-time job at Twitch. 

“Chris had a very short but very productive life. He was very smart and just a very bright person who was compassionate and was concerned about the planet, concerned about other people, and just an all-around good person who had a lot to give,” his mother said. 

Sergio Dionte Barber Williams, Dec. 1

The 34-year-old Oakland resident was hit and killed by a speeding driver on Martin Luther King Jr. Way while he was using the crosswalk at West Grand Avenue around 12:30 a.m. 

The Oakland Police Department has not said whether they found the driver. The Oaklandside could not find members of his family who could speak about him. 

Johanna Danielle Hoffman, Dec. 5

The 43-year-old San Leandro resident died when her Mazda van collided with several trucks at East 27th Street and Fruitvale Avenue. The collision occurred around 8:30 a.m. when Hoffman hit another truck, which caused a chain reaction in the middle of the road with cars going in both directions. Several people inside the other cars were injured but not seriously hurt. Hoffman was taken to the hospital immediately afterward but died. 

Hoffman was a lawyer who attended the New College of California School of Law in San Francisco before the school closed in the late 2000s. She worked for a time with parolees and was once a guest lecturer at UC Berkeley School of Law where she spoke about the “Politics and Policy of Parole in California.”

Born in Van Nuys, Hoffman grew up in the San Fernando Valley and Venice, California. According to an obituary published in the East Bay Times, Hoffman was an active child, participating in gymnastics, figure skating, and visual art, including photography. 

She was “a passionate defender of those who had been abused, oppressed, or underserved” and her family remembers her for her “fierce intelligence and allegiance, razor-sharp wit, absolute antipathy to bulls!*t, and deep love for her family and friends, Beyonce, the Warriors, and RBG.”

Samrawit Kenno Abbadura, Dec. 13

The 24-year-old Uber driver and Oakland resident was carrying a passenger to their destination at 16th Street and Mandela Parkway when a speeding driver in a stolen Ford Fusion collided with her. She died at the scene of the crash. 

The driver, a 34-year-old man, was arrested and investigated for vehicular manslaughter and for driving under the influence. He had already been involved in another collision earlier in the day.  

“Her driver’s side was hit really hard, punched through her door, basically like a knife. He T-boned her right where she was sitting,” her older brother Ephrem Shifa told us. 

Samrawit was one of six siblings from an Ethiopian family, many of whom moved to the U.S. seven years ago. Her oldest brother, Shifa, is a transportation engineer who works for Caltrans on highway traffic safety. He told The Oaklandside that he was shocked over losing one of his younger sisters. 

He noted that the road she was on did not have enough traffic-calming elements. “At that intersection, there is no stop sign or a traffic light. She had the right of way, but this person did not. There should be protection there to help if someone is speeding,” Shifa said.

Samwarit graduated from the College of Alameda last year and was applying to nursing school. Her brother said that she was married to her childhood friend in Ethiopia, Yared Getahun, who she wanted to sponsor so he could immigrate to be with her in Oakland and attend a university here. 

“She regularly went to church. She worked hard and was a good student. She got married young, and was looking forward to really beginning her life with her husband.” Shifa said the family is still working with immigration lawyers to bring him to the U.S. 

Samwarit’s parents, Shifa said, are devastated by the loss of their daughter. He’s still grieving too. 

“It’s actually getting harder every week instead of becoming easier,” Shifa said. “Just the grief is very difficult. You know, she was so young and was very active with the family. She traveled a lot and would reach out to extended members of the families. She was the glue. The fact that she’s not here anymore creates a vacuum in our mind and life.” 

Romeo Tadeo Gonzalez Alva, Dec. 28

The 47-year-old Oakland resident was hit at the intersection of 76th Street and International Avenue by a Mitsubishi Outlander SUV as he was walking. 

The Alameda County coroner has ruled the cause of death as “multiple” blunt force injuries. We have not been able to get in touch with his family.

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