32 people died in Sacramento car crashes in 2025. At a vigil, mourners remember
Mourners gathered downtown Wednesday to remember at least 32 people killed in vehicle crashes in Sacramento last year. The sunset vigil came a day after a pedestrian was killed on Fruitridge Road in what appears to be the California capital’s first fatal collision of the year.
The vigil, hosted at John C. Fremont Park by Slow Down Sacramento, drew more than 70 people, including several grieving families. Speakers called for a more serious response to fatal collisions, which are often preventable through changes to infrastructure and policy.
Michelle Silva, now a Slow Down Sacramento board member, described a sense of dissonance in the year and five months since her husband, José Luis Silva, died in a crash at J and 24th streets. He was 55.
“All of us have the shared pain of losing our loved ones, and I don’t see a lot of change,” Michelle told the crowd. “What’s changed in the year? So much, and yet so little. J Street still has speeders. … I really don’t feel like a whole lot has changed, except my life.”
Michelle and José Luis met when they were both close to 50. Each had survived severe illnesses and met during what they considered a kind of “second chance” at life. One of his daughters, Madeline, said that José Luis — who had sworn off matrimony after two divorces — floated home from his first date with Michelle and said he might have to get married. Everything fell into place.
That was torn apart on Aug. 25, 2024, when the Marine veteran was killed on his way home from seeing the baby granddaughter he adored, Ofelia, then 6 months old. Madeline has since had a second child: a boy named Luis, named for the grandfather he will never meet.
In 2017, the Sacramento City Council made a “Vision Zero” pledge to eliminate all traffic fatalities and serious injuries by 2027. José Luis is one of more than 350 people who have died since that pledge, including at least 66 whose deaths have been reported by The Sacramento Bee since January 2024.
At least 60 pedestrians were killed in vehicle collisions across all of Sacramento County last year — 10 fewer than the number of homicide victims, according to the Sacramento County Coroner’s Office and a Bee analysis.
“We can’t have more carnage year after year,” Isaac Gonzalez, the founder of Slow Down Sacramento, said before the vigil began. “We just need to act with the boldness and urgency that we need to address this crisis.”
Families left shattered
Although the vigil focused on deaths within the city, people from outside city limits attended as well, seeking an outlet for the grief they carry after crashes on dangerous roads. Allison Lyman, Erika Pringle and Amelia Snyder spoke at the event.
A driver fatally struck Lyman’s son, Connor Elliot Lopez, 23, while he was riding his motorcycle home from the gym in April. He was a piano teacher and had a close bond with the family cat, Benny. His death, Lyman said, “destroyed” her family. At least a dozen relatives attended the vigil Wednesday, many holding photos of Lopez.
Before the vigil began, Lyman hugged Erika Pringle, whose brother, Drew Pringle, 21, was killed in a crosswalk just outside city limits in Rosemont in 2023.
Amelia Snyder was in tears when she spoke into the microphone. After a crash in Roseville in 2024, “We lost our precious Julian,” she said.
With her husband, James, at her side, the mother decried reckless driving. She said that people don’t understand the terrible consequences a crash can have, not just for the people who are killed, but for the loved ones left behind. Amelia has watched her three living sons, Joseph, James Jr. and Joshua, navigate life without their brother. Since the death of her son — a 17-year-old senior at Casa Roble High School — life has been “pure torture.”
Amelia added that California laws often do not treat fatal crashes as serious crimes. The person who was driving her son, she said, was not arrested the night of the crash: “He got to go home and go to bed, and my son went to the morgue.”
Who has died in fatal crashes?
Fatal crashes typically follow patterns. In Sacramento, most of the dead are pedestrians or cyclists. A majority of the fatal collisions in 2025 happened on the city’s designated “high-injury network” — the 14% of Sacramento streets where 77% of severe crashes occur. Fruitridge Road alone has averaged about three fatal crashes a year over the past two years, and a seventh crash killed a pedestrian on the road this week. Two fatal collisions on Fruitridge since 2024 occurred at the same intersection: Fruitridge and Ethel Way.
The city has recently changed tactics on improving road safety. In March, the City Council approved a $4.6 million “quick-build” program to pursue rapid, low-cost safety improvements on roadways.
The crisis has continued, with a rising death toll. Since January 2024, The Sacramento Bee has reported the deaths of 66 people on city streets.
The vigil memorialized 32 people who died in crashes on city streets in 2025: Najah Aaqilah Saleemah Islam, 30; Jonathon T. Slaugh, 62; Adrienne Keyana Johnson, 33; Cornelius Jesse, 59; Vuong Van Nguyen, 47; Zachery Ryan Taylor, 20; Natalia Regina Sanchez, 50; William Andrew Akens, 26; Ernesto Torres, 58; Zhen Cheng Kuang, 76; Thongthai Xanaxay, 55; Kaleb Josiah Green, 22; Huynh Huu Duc Nguyen, 30; Robert Michael Pineschi Jr., 36; Kimberly Lynn Pickett, 60; Parris Shauntel Windham, 41; Michael Driskell, 78; three young men from the same family: Mohammad Shaoib Durrani, 22, Omar Durrani, 25, and Hashmatullah Durrani, 24; Ricky Ray Reyes, 19; Jeremy M. Robinson, 46; James Lee Little, 64; Nathan Christopher Scott Thomas, 50; Alicia Andrea Barnes, 65; Nedra Lee Franklin, 67; Gerald L. Hall, 60; Bee Lao, 46; Kyle Scott Silvers, 33; Randy Allen Perez, 41; David Zoellner, 61; and Jaheem Seay, 23.
The 2025 death toll is similar to the death toll in 2024, when at least 33 people died in crashes on city streets: Mattie Nicholson, 56; Johanna Kate Johnston, 55; Jeffrey Blain, 59; Aaron Ward, 40; Michael J. Kennedy, 40; Federico Zacarias Cambrano, 28; Marvin Moran, 22; Sam Dent, 41; Daniel Morris, 38; Terry Lane, 55; David Rink, 51; James Lind, 54; Tyler Vandehei, 32; Jose Valladolid Ramirez, 36; Larry Winters, 76; Sau Voong, 84; Johnnie A. Fite, 82; Robert Kohler Jr., 50; Edward J. Lopez, 61; David D. Taylor, 60; Silva, 55; Geohaira “Geo” Sosa, 32; Kaylee Xiong, 18; Muhammad Saddique, 64; Azure Amonti Daniels, 48; Duane Ashby, 35; Martin Chavez, 41; Daniel Lee Jennings Jr., 54; Jordan Nicolas Rodriguez, 38; Alfred Ramirez, 23; Nelson Lee, 64; Lindie Kraushar, 53; and Victor Mencarini, 72.
Standing in front of a circle of cones at Fremont Park bearing the names of those who were killed in 2025, Gonzalez said, “These deaths were not inevitable. ... Vision Zero is not just policy; it’s a promise. And promises require follow-through.”
This story was originally published January 8, 2026 at 10:04 AM.
