{"id":14294,"date":"2026-09-16T10:06:38","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T17:06:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.carlsbadistan.com\/?p=14294"},"modified":"2026-09-16T11:36:42","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T18:36:42","slug":"carlsbad-police-arrest-hit-and-run-driver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.carlsbadistan.com\/?p=14294","title":{"rendered":"Carlsbad Police Arrest Hit and Run Driver"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Carlsbad Police<\/strong> arrested <strong>Fernando Saldana<\/strong>, 26, of Escondido, California for murder in a hit-and-run crash that killed a pedestrian near the corner of Carlsbad Blvd. and Redwood Ave. in Carlsbad at 7:46 PM September 15, 2026, according to a press release from the Carlsbad Police Department. This was not Saldana&#8217;s first DUI.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Upon arrival, officers located a pedestrian in the roadway who had sustained major injuries. The pedestrian was transported to a local hospital, where they were pronounced deceased . . . The involved vehicle had fled the area. Using evidence left at the scene, along with assistance from community members, Carlsbad&#8217;s automated license plate readers and air support from the San Diego Police Department and San Diego County Sheriff&#8217;s Department, officers located the involved vehicle just over one mile from the collision site.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Sadly, this is not the first <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbs8.com\/article\/news\/jogger-struck-killed-in-carlsbad-identified\/509-a442f563-b027-4bdf-8bef-21d13db3a38d\"><strong>life lost at this dangerous Carlsbad corner<\/strong><\/a>. For the rest of the press release, please follow the jump.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>On Sept. 15, 2026, at approximately 7:46 p.m., the City of Carlsbad Police Department responded to the 3800 block of Carlsbad Boulevard to investigate a traffic collision involving a vehicle and a pedestrian.<\/p>\n<p>Upon arrival, officers located a pedestrian in the roadway who had sustained major injuries. The pedestrian was transported to a local hospital, where they were pronounced deceased.<\/p>\n<p>The involved vehicle had fled the area. Using evidence left at the scene, along with assistance from community members, Carlsbad&#8217;s automated license plate readers and air support from the San Diego Police Department and San Diego County Sheriff&#8217;s Department, officers located the involved vehicle just over one mile from the collision site.<\/p>\n<p>Following further investigation, the driver was located and identified as 26-year-old Fernando Saldana of Escondido. Saldana was arrested for murder, leaving the scene of a collision resulting in injury or death, DUl causing injury or death, and gross vehicular manslaughter. Saldana, who has a prior DUI conviction, was booked into the Vista Detention Facility.<\/p>\n<p>The identity of the deceased will be released by the San Diego County Medical Examiner&#8217;s Office at a later date. The cause of the collision remains under investigation, though alcohol is suspected to be a contributing factor.<\/p>\n<p>The Carlsbad Police Department is seeking additional witnesses to the incident. Anyone with information is encouraged to contact Traffic Accident Investigator Officer Nicholas Alvarado at 442-339-5136 or<\/p>\n<p>Nicholas.Alvarado@carlsbadca.gov<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Carlsbad Police arrested Fernando Saldana, 26, of Escondido, California for murder in a hit-and-run crash that killed a pedestrian near the corner of Carlsbad Blvd. and Redwood Ave. in Carlsbad at 7:46 PM September 15, 2026, according to a press release from the Carlsbad Police Department. This was not Saldana&#8217;s first DUI. Upon arrival, officers [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,27],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carlsbadistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14294"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carlsbadistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carlsbadistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carlsbadistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carlsbadistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14294"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.carlsbadistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14294\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14303,"href":"https:\/\/www.carlsbadistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14294\/revisions\/14303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.carlsbadistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carlsbadistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.carlsbadistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}