Police Arrest Drunk Driver Following Fatal Hit and Run Collision
Published on May 01, 2025
Palo Alto, CA – Police arrested a male suspect Wednesday night, following a pair of hit and run collisions, one of which took the life of an elderly pedestrian.
On Wednesday, April 30, 2025, at about 9:05 p.m., our 24-hour dispatch center received a call reporting a major injury collision that had just occurred in the 1200 block of Forest Avenue. Officers and personnel from the Palo Alto Fire Department responded immediately and located a woman in her seventies unconscious in the roadway. The woman was transported to a local hospital where she was pronounced deceased. Personnel from the Specialized Traffic Accident Reconstruction (STAR) team responded to the scene to continue the investigation.
The preliminary investigation revealed that the victim was struck by a vehicle while crossing the street in or near the intersection of Forest Avenue and Lincoln Avenue, and that the vehicle had fled. While on scene, officers received a report of another hit and run that had occurred at Channing Avenue and Middlefield Road at about 8:55 p.m. No one was injured in this collision. Through investigation, officers determined that the same vehicle was involved in both collisions.
A short time later, Police located the male suspect and the vehicle on the 1800 Block of East Bayshore Road in East Palo Alto. The male suspect driver, 52-year-old Ignacio Estrada of East Palo Alto, was arrested and booked into the Santa Clara County Main Jail for vehicular manslaughter, driving under the influence causing injury, and hit and run causing injury (all felonies). Police will be submitting a case for review to the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office for the hit and run collision (a misdemeanor) that occurred at Channing Avenue and Middlefield Road. Estrada’s booking photograph is above.
Police are not releasing the victim’s identity; that information can be obtained from the Santa Clara County Office of the Medical Examiner-Coroner.
Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call our 24-hour dispatch center at (650) 329-2413. Anonymous tips can be sent via text message or voice mail to (650) 383-8984, or submitted using the “TipNow-Palo Alto” app, which is available via the App Store or Google Play.