A 54-year-old man died after crashing his vehicle into a sound wall and then apparently walking into the roadway of a main thoroughfare in Walnut Creek where a vehicle struck him Friday morning, a city spokeswoman said.
The crash was reported shortly after 7 a.m. in the area of Ygnacio Valley and Oak Grove roads.
After crashing his sedan, the man got out of the car and walked into the roadway where he ended up in the path of a vehicle that struck him, city spokeswoman Betsy Burkhart said.
The man, identified by the Contra Costa County coroner’s office as Walnut Creek resident Adam Kao, died of his injuries a short time later and the woman whose vehicle struck him stopped at the scene and cooperated with investigators, Burkhart said.
Eastbound Ygnacio Valley Road was shut down until nearly noon while police investigated the collision.
20 comments
That’s sad. Also, I know people are going to say it was stupid to walk out into traffic, which I agree. But remember, after an accident, even a small one I sometimes your brain isn’t focused. Adrenaline, anxiety and WTF just happed. It can make you easily lose a step in safty.
Downhill is Westbound. Seems the guy was Eastbound. RIP
His car was totaled. I can’t imagine he wasn’t somehow injured before entering the roadway. RIP
This was on the East bound side of ygnacio going up the hill
Many people are saying they saw the victim laying naked in the roadway. There is definitely more to the story here.
It’s common for the first responders to cut off clothes to be able to better view for injuries “Strip and Flip” But as a first responder I have seen people get completely knocked out of their clothes thru blunt force.
A co-worker of mine drove by the accident. He said it looked like he went through both windows of the car that hit him. His body had been covered up by the time he drove by, so he didn’t say anything about the guy being naked. He did say the one car was absolutely destroyed.
… yes there is…. mods pulled my first message… car went through the sound wall (it’s my neighbor) he got out and got it trying to cross YVR … to hit the parallel soundwall he had to make abrupt right and up a curb… fortunately the broken up soundwall didn’t hurt anyone or smash into the house behind it.
He was naked. Mental health issues or drugs. I drove by right after before the cops arrived. Body was naked in the road.
Very sad.
I saw the car he was driving and it looked like nobody would have walked away from it, so can only imagine he was in complete shock as a minimum!
I have to drive by there today because I can’t remember a sound wall that you could smash your car against. Anyone know the exact location?
as you go east on YVR it’s about 500 yds past Oak Grove… past the drainage canal between the 2 rows of homes
Randy
All I see there is a high fence twenty feet from the street. If a guy hit that his car would be off of the road.
https://goo.gl/maps/tCi6U8E9qbaEL6LJ7 is a Google street view of the panel of the sound wall that was hit. If you zoom out from there and look to the right you’ll see some bushes with a white post at the curb. Those got wiped out. I can’t remember if the tree was still there.
Ygnacio Valley Road starts making a gentle bend to the left about 0.4 miles east of Oak Grove Road. It seems the guy went to the right rather than following the road to the left. When he hit the curb the car bounced up and over/through some landscaping and seemed to clear the sidewalk without touching it. He landed in the dirt on the far side, leaving a long pair of gouges in the dirt from the tires. He then hit the wall at an angle with the some of wall exploding into pieces of brick plus concrete that are strewn all over someone’s back yard.
One bit of good news is the wall seems to be well constructed and the repair should be easy. One panel was blown out. The collision did not seem to damage the posts which are made of steel. The tabs that hold the wall panels in place were not damaged except for one at the bottom. They use a crane to lower the panels in place, guiding them between the tabs on the posts.
It’s unfortunate that he then walked out into the street. Visibility is normally very good there but it’s possible the rising Sun was a factor.
I went by again today as I was wondering about the tree that’s visible in Google Street View and learned why I did not notice it yesterday. As it was jumping the curb the car hit the tree first, dead on up the middle of the car. The tree was obliterated, yanking it out of the ground and leaving bits of torn roots in the ground. That also explains why the car went over the sidewalk without touching it as it was traveling over the remains of the tree. It would be interesting to know what the police estimates of the car’s speed are as it went through a sizable tree, bushes, dived into the ground leaving long and deep “skid marks,” and still hit the wall hard enough that it exploded, all while traveling uphill.
As the guy walked away it shows how well built today’s cars are.
I’ve seen several comments from people who drove by afterwards. Most who saw the cars said both had holes in the windshields. That usually is the result of someone inside the vehicle hitting the glass with their head upon impact, which could explain why poor Mr. Kao was disoriented enough to have walked (or run as I saw described in one article by the poor woman who hit him), into the roadway. My questions are; did his seatbelt and airbags fail to protect him? Also the obvious, was he not buckled in? I saw a photo showing the soundwall along the westbound lanes, downhill approaching Oak Grove Road from Concord. Another question I have is, at 7:00 am on a Friday, isn’t there bumper to bumper traffic going that direction? Even if he were in the less crowded turning lane onto Oak Grove Road, it’s hard to imagine purposely driving at the speed it would take at that time of the morning to destroy his car as it appeared to have done.. But anyway, how sad for everyone all around.
Geeze….it’s amazing how some do not understand the difference between east and west.
Plinko – agree
Silva – the other side of the street – going away from Oak Grove.. the black / dark blue car has the dent in the front from Mr Kao being hit then then smash in the windshield where he hit.. you can see blood on the windshield as well. His vehicle is totally smashed in the front and yes he did leave the roadway… up the curb and through the sound wall…. it’s where YVR veers to the left as your starting to go up the hill… maybe fell asleep… but why naked?
Got it. Thank you Randy. The photo I saw of WB YVR facing Oak Grove just must’ve been random.
East-West-West East. As usual most posters don’t know what they are talking about
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