Sonia Chow Killed in Pearblossom Highway Crash Near Palmdale

PALMDALE, CA – A 59-year-old woman died Tuesday morning in a two-vehicle crash on Pearblossom Highway in the desert near Palmdale, the California Highway Patrol said.

The collision was reported at about 10:30 a.m. on Pearblossom Highway just west of Old Nadeau Road, close to the California Aqueduct, according to the CHP. CHP officers and Los Angeles County Fire Department personnel responded and pronounced the woman dead at the scene.

The Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner later identified her as Sonia Chow, 59. Investigators had not released the identity or condition of the other driver as of Tuesday evening, and the CHP had not determined a cause.

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Sonia Chow’s Pearblossom Highway Accident and Investigation

Pearblossom Highway was closed between 26th Street East and Sierra Highway while officers investigated and cleared the scene.

Pearblossom Highway, also known as State Route 138, is a mostly two-lane road that runs through the high desert communities of the Antelope Valley, linking the region to Interstate 5 to the west and Interstate 15 to the east. The corridor has carried a reputation for danger for decades, dating to a string of head-on collisions in the 1980s and 1990s that earned it the nickname “blood alley” among residents. Caltrans and Los Angeles County have spent millions of dollars since the 2000s widening sections of the highway from two lanes to four and adding traffic signals, and local safety advocates continue to press state and county officials for further improvements at high-risk intersections along the route.

Statewide, Caltrans and the CHP reported 3,612 traffic fatalities in 2023, along with more than 14,000 serious injuries, on both the state highway system and local roads. Rural two-lane highways like Pearblossom, where opposing lanes of traffic share a narrow roadway at high speeds, remain among the settings safety officials point to most often when discussing where crash severity tends to be highest.

California Laws on Highway Collisions

California law allows the family of a person killed in a traffic collision to pursue a civil claim against those responsible, regardless of what conclusions, if any, emerge from the CHP’s investigation. A driver who fails to exercise reasonable care behind the wheel can be held liable for the resulting harm under ordinary negligence principles. That standard applies whether the case proceeds as a personal injury claim or, because of the reported fatality, a wrongful death action under Code of Civil Procedure sections 377.60 and 377.61, which identify the surviving family members eligible to bring such a claim.

Because the CHP has not yet determined how the crash occurred, any eventual civil case would likely turn on the agency’s findings once the investigation concludes. California follows a pure comparative negligence rule, meaning a jury can apportion fault between multiple drivers and reduce, rather than eliminate, a plaintiff’s recovery if more than one party contributed to a collision. 

Claims stemming from this crash are generally subject to a two-year statute of limitations under Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1. If an investigation were to identify a dangerous condition of the roadway itself as a contributing factor, a separate claim against the public entity responsible for maintaining that stretch of highway could potentially arise under Government Code section 835, though nothing in the available reporting supports that theory at this stage. Claims against a public entity carry a far shorter window: written notice must generally be filed within six months under Government Code section 911.2.