On-duty Merced deputy hits, kills pedestrian on Lander Avenue

An on-duty Merced County sheriff’s deputy driving his patrol vehicle struck and killed a 51-year-old man who was walking along Lander Avenue south of Third Avenue in Stevinson on Thursday night.

According to the California Highway Patrol, the man was walking in the southbound lane of Lander Avenue about 8 p.m.

Deputy Vincent LaMattina was driving the same direction in a 2011 Ford Crown Victoria, Sheriff Vern Warnke said.

“We had CHP officers in the area already investigating another collision, and they heard (the pedestrian) crash and responded to that scene,” Officer Moises Onsurez said.

Officers and paramedics performed CPR on the victim, Pedro Rocha, but he succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene, the CHP said.

The victim’s name was released Friday afternoon by the Merced County Coroner’s Office.

Rocha was wearing dark clothing and there was light rain at the time of the incident, the CHP said.

Onsurez said the pedestrian was in the roadway in the southbound lane. “There’s no crosswalk in the area. He was not on the shoulder of the road,” Onsurez said.

The death is the latest in a string of fatal vehicle-pedestrian collisions in Merced County. At least six people were killed while walking on or near roadways from November through January. Several of the collisions involved people wearing dark clothing who were struck at night.

The Sheriff’s Department investigated nine crashes involving pedestrian deaths in 2015, up from three in 2014.

LaMattina, 27, has been employed by the Sheriff’s Department since August 2013. He has been placed on paid administrative leave pending further investigation, Sgt. Delray Shelton said.

Shelton described LaMattina’s leave from the department as “routine” in such investigations.

The roadway remained closed until nearly 2 a.m. Friday while officers investigated the scene.

The CHP’s Major Accident Investigation Team has been called in to assist the Merced-area CHP office with the crash investigation.

This story was originally published March 4, 2016 at 7:36 AM with the headline "On-duty Merced deputy hits, kills pedestrian on Lander Avenue."