A 49 year-old Manteca man was struck and killed while crossing West Yosemite Avenue Sunday night in front of Kaiser Permanente hospital.

Manteca Police arrested driver Blake Joseph Walker, 38, of Manteca for gross vehicular manslaughter and driving under the influence of drugs.

The police indicated the driver was impaired by marijuana.

Walker was booked into San Joaquin County jail after the accident occurred around 10:20 p.m. Sunday.

It apparently is the first fatal pedestrian accident in Manteca tied to marijuana use.

Over the years there have been at least two pedestrian deaths where the drivers were found to be impaired by legal prescriptions.

One fatality involved a woman killed in the mid-1990s in the afternoon as she was exiting her vehicle on Center Street in front of the library.

The San Joaquin County medical examiner identified the victim in Sunday’s fatal as Joseph Capasso.

 The location was within two blocks from where one of three cannabis retailers will open later this year in space behind Oak Valley Dental and six blocks where another strength marijuana operation will open in a small business park across from the city’s wastewater treatment plant. Both cannabis locations are accessed via West Yosemite Avenue.

It was the second pedestrian death in Manteca this year.

The other was a homeless individual who was crossing the 120 Bypass eastbound lanes east of the Main Street interchange on May 14 that was struck by multiple vehicles.

The May 14 incident brought the number of homeless people killed crossing the freeway near the interchange to two over a 38-month period.

A woman was critically injured in April after being struck while crossing North Main Street at night.

The incident was in the 700 block of North Main Street between Edison and Jason streets  

The stretch of North Main Street between Jason and Edison streets is the deadliest area for pedestrians in Manteca.

 It is where a 55-year-old man was killed crossing the four-lane arterial in November of 2017 and a 67-year-old woman was killed in December of 2016.

There have been other car-pedestrian accidents on that stretch of North Main Street.

Included among those was a March 2019 accident when two teens were more than halfway across Main when they were struck by a northbound sedan traveling in the outside lane.

A bicyclist was killed almost a block to the south near Alameda Street.

In addition, there have been several traffic fatalities as well just north of Edison. There were solo accidents that speed was considered a contributing factor.

Anybody with information about this past Sunday’s fatal accident are asked to call the Manteca Police Department at 209.456.8101.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email swyatt@mantecabulletin.com