A 37-year-old man died after crashing his vehicle into a tree in the area of 1300 S. Main Street, according to the SAPD.
On July 20, 2025, at approximately 1:23 a.m., the Santa Ana Police Department received multiple calls regarding a single vehicle traffic collision in the area of 1300 S. Main St.
Officers, along with Orange County Fire Authority (OCFA), responded to the scene and discovered a vehicle had collided with a tree.
The driver, later identified as Francisco Estrada Rivera (37) of Santa Ana, was unresponsive and pronounced deceased at the scene by OCFA personnel.
Based on the preliminary investigation, it is believed the vehicle was traveling southbound on Main St. from McFadden Ave. at a high rate of speed when it collided with the tree.
The Santa Ana Police Department’s Collision Investigations Unit (CIU) is investigating this incident. Anyone with information about this collision is asked to contact Detective K. Catlin at (714) 245-8224 or the Santa Ana Police Department’s Traffic Division at (714) 245-8200.
Each year in the United States, thousands of drivers die in crashes involving trees. Here’s a breakdown based on the most recent and reliable data:
- In 2023, approximately 3,654 people died in crashes where a tree was the fixed object struck1.
- This accounted for 45% of all fixed-object crash deaths that year.
- The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) also reports that tree collisions are the most harmful event in about 10% of all U.S. traffic fatalities annually, and 19% of all roadway departure fatalities.
- Another FHWA source estimates that over 4,000 fatalities and 100,000 injuries occur each year due to vehicle-tree collisions.
These crashes are often severe due to the immovable nature of trees and typically occur when vehicles leave the roadway—often at high speeds or under poor visibility conditions.
In California, while comprehensive statewide data on tree-specific crash fatalities is not always broken out in public summaries, here’s what we can gather from the most reliable sources:
- The California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) and SWITRS (Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System) track crash data by object struck, including trees. However, the most recent public reports (e.g., 2020) do not isolate tree collisions in their top-line summaries.
- According to national data from the Federal Highway Administration, California ranks among the top states for fatal crashes involving fixed objects like trees, especially in rural and mountainous areas.
- California had 4,285 total traffic fatalities in the most recent reporting year. Based on national averages—where about 10–12% of roadway departure fatalities involve trees—we can estimate that roughly 300–500 fatalities annually in California may involve vehicles crashing into trees.