Child Dies in Semi Truck Collision

A two-vehicle accident on Highway 152 left two injured and one dead Monday evening.

At 6:50 p.m., Victor Perez, 29, of Los Banos, was driving his 1992 Toyota Tercel near Dinosaur Point Road, east of Gilroy, with a 38-year-old passenger in the front seat and a 7-year-old boy in the back seat.
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Perez veered into the right lane and collided with the back end of a semi truck. According to CHP Officer Jaime Rios, although the crash occurred at a "low rate of speed," the force was enough to kill the child passenger.

Perez also suffered lacerations to the head and a broken clavicle. The other passenger complained of hip and chest pain, while the truck driver was not injured.

The child "was not properly restrained at the time of the collision," Rios said. "California law states that children under the age of 8-years-old shall be properly restrained in a child restraint device."

The boy was pronounced dead at 7:35 p.m., and the CHP report lists his injury as "blunt force trauma."

Alcohol and drugs are not believed to be the cause of the collision. 

In March of 2011, a 5-year-old boy died in the same spot when the driver, the victim's aunt, drove off the road. 

Please remember to always have your children properly buckled before you even start your car.