Victims ID’d in Bay Park, Chula Vista, La Mesa, Pala collisions

Authorities have released the names of four victims who died in San Diego-area traffic accidents in the last week, one in an apparent DUI wreck and another in a hit-and-run.

Shortly before 1 a.m. Wednesday, an eastbound car veered off state Route 54 near Highland Avenue in Chula Vista, struck a sign and went down an embankment, according to the county San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Office and the California Highway Patrol.

A passenger in the vehicle, Jalen Sealee, 21, of Chula Vista, suffered severe blunt-force trauma and was pronounced dead at UCSD Medical Center in Hillcrest about an hour later.

The 20-year-old man who had been driving the car was arrested on suspicion of DUI, the CHP reported.

Two days earlier, a vehicle struck a pedestrian near Lake Murray. Katherine Pederson, 61, was crossing the street in the 5600 block of Baltimore Drive in La Mesa when a sedan hit her at about 9:45 p.m. Monday. Paramedics took her to Sharp Memorial Hospital in San Diego, where doctors pronounced her dead shortly after arrival.

Earlier Monday, at about 3:15 p.m., Stryder Spillane, 38, died at the scene after the sedan he was driving veered off state Route 76 near Pala Casino Spa Resort and struck a tree.

On Sept. 5, a hit-and-run driver struck Stacy Denton, 71, in the 2900 block of Morena Boulevard in Bay Park, authorities said. Paramedics took Denton to UCSD Medical Center, where doctors pronounced her dead at about 5:30 a.m.