Update, Sept. 17, 1:10 p.m. The Alameda County coroner’s office has identified the driver who was killed as Marcos Perez-Morales, 33, of Richmond.
Original story: A man whose vehicle became disabled on Interstate 80 near Berkeley early Sunday morning was killed when a motorist struck him as he stood outside his car, authorities report.
At 2 a.m., the California Highway Patrol was called to eastbound Interstate 80, near the junction with I-580, for what initially was reported as a person who had been ejected from a vehicle during a traffic collision, said Officer Kris Borer of the Oakland CHP division. The Berkeley Fire Department identified the location as north of Gilman Street to the east of Golden Gate Fields near the Albany border.
When CHP officers arrived at 2:06 a.m., they found a man lying in the roadway, Borer said. Ambulance personnel from Berkeley and Albany were already on the scene. Berkeley paramedics pronounced the man, who appeared to be in his 30s, dead at 2:13 a.m. His name and city of residence were unavailable as of publication time.
Based on the preliminary investigation, Borer said a 1998 Honda Civic had somehow become disabled on the freeway in the lane to the right of the fast lane. The driver got out of the Honda and was standing on the highway near his car. As he stood there, a driver in a 2018 Jeep Cherokee struck the man, killing him.
The Jeep driver, who sustained a broken wrist during the crash, remained at the scene and cooperated with the investigation, Borer said. The CHP does not believe drugs or alcohol were factors in the crash, he said.
Eastbound Interstate 80 was closed until about 3 a.m. while officers collected evidence, Borer said.
The man’s death was the fifth traffic-related fatality in or near Berkeley since Thursday night when two men were killed by an Amtrak train near University Avenue. Early Saturday morning, a cyclist was killed at or near the Ashby Avenue on-ramp to eastbound I-80. Saturday night, a man was struck and killed near Ashby BART by a hit-and-run driver, police believe.
Berkeleyside will update this story when more information becomes available.
