Authorities publicly identified a 27-year-old construction worker who was killed last week when a suspected hit-and-run driver’s car struck him on a rural road in Valley Center.
Manuel Leon of Fallbrook was working as a traffic flagman at a work site on Cool Valley Road, a few miles west of Harrah’s Resort Southern California, when an eastbound Toyota Corolla hit him shortly before 7 a.m. Wednesday, according to the Medical Examiner’s Office and California Highway Patrol.
The motorist continued driving and left the area, CHP Officer Hunter Gerber said.
Paramedics took Leon to Palomar Medical Center in Escondido, where he was pronounced dead a few hours later.
The next day, CHP investigators arrested the alleged driver. Ruperto Jesus Lopez, 77, was booked into county jail in Vista on suspicion of hit-and-run causing death and vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence.
