Update: CHP identifies driver in Highway 101 crash that killed pedestrian
CORRECTION: The article has been updated to reflect the homeless person was already dead when struck by Michael McGee’s vehicle.
Update 10 a.m. Monday:
The California Highway Patrol identified the driver in a fatal collision in San Luis Obispo on Thursday as 43-year-old Michael Zavala of Santa Maria.
According to the CHP, officers were notified of a transient woman running across all lanes of northbound Highway 101 in San Luis Obispo around 6 a.m. Monday amid dark and foggy conditions.
Upon arrival, officers reportedly found a 45-year-old transient woman dead along the highway. Her name has not been released by the CHP.
According to the CHP, Zavala was not arrested.
Update 4:30 p.m. Thursday:
Dr. Michael McGee, a San Luis Obispo County psychiatrist, said he was driving to work at the Atascadero State Hospital when he struck what he later discovered was a person who was dead.
McGee said he felt his car hit something as he was driving northbound on Highway 101.
“I almost lost control,” McGee said. “There was a huge bang.”
He couldn’t see what he had hit in the dim morning light, so he continued to work.
McGee said that, after arriving at work, he called the California Highway Patrol and told the agency that his vehicle had struck something, resulting in damage to the front of his car. The CHP assessed the damage to his vehicle and informed him he had struck a homeless person who was already dead, according to McGee.
“I felt flushed with horror,” McGee said.
As a psychiatrist, McGee said, he often works with the homeless population.
“I ran over a person who very much could have been a patient of mine,” McGee said. “It was doubly traumatizing.”
The person who was killed had not been identified by the CHP as of 4:30 Thursday.
Original story:
A person was struck by a car and killed on northbound Highway 101 near San Luis Obispo early Thursday morning.
The crash took place on the highway north of Los Osos Valley Road around 6 a.m., according to the California Highway Patrol.
The CHP closed northbound Highway 101 near Los Osos Valley Road until around 8:30 a.m. to investigate the scene, according to CHP tweets. The highway had reopened as of 8: 40 a.m.
The CHP and San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office deputies gathered evidence along the highway, which was shrouded in heavy fog.
The crash took place next to the city wastewater Treatment Plant— an area recently cleared of homeless encampments.
This story was originally published December 3, 2020 at 8:48 AM.
