FRESNO, Calif. — Authorities have identified the woman killed in a deadly crash in central Fresno early Saturday morning as 22-year-old Mina Serrano. The Fresno County Sheriff’s Office confirmed Serrano was a passenger in the vehicle when it collided with several parked cars and a large truck trailer along Belmont Avenue near Barton Avenue.
According to the Fresno Police Department, 34-year-old Joshua Parker was arrested and booked into the Fresno County Jail on multiple charges, including gross vehicular manslaughter, DUI causing injury or death, child endangerment, and driving with a suspended or revoked license.
Investigators say Parker was driving eastbound on Belmont Avenue when he lost control, striking a parked car, a pile of wooden pallets, and a parked big rig trailer. Surveillance footage from a nearby business captured the horrifying crash, showing how the vehicle narrowly missed a worker before slamming into the truck.
“If it wasn’t for one pallet that was left slanted, the vehicle would have taken him as well,” said Claudia Ibanez, manager at Dulceria’s Mojica. “I was ringing up a customer when I heard someone yell, ‘watch out!’ Then I saw the vehicle hit everything in its path.”
Ibanez rushed outside and joined others trying to help the victims, including a two-year-old boy who was covered in shattered glass. “The baby was full of glass, crying, and he just said, ‘the glass broke,’” she recalled.
Serrano was pronounced dead at the scene. Parker, who survived, reportedly told witnesses that his wheel had popped and he lost control. Police are investigating reports of a disturbance inside the SUV before the crash.
The tragic accident has left loved ones mourning the loss of Mina Serrano, whose life was cut short in a senseless, preventable tragedy.