A 16-year-old girl who was evidently walking to school was struck and killed by a speeding car on October 31, 2024.
A car was reportedly heading north on Rancho Santa Fe Road approaching San Marcos Boulevard when the teen crossed the roadway and was struck. She was taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries. The driver stayed on the scene and cooperated. The investigation is ongoing, but drugs or alcohol are not believed to have played a role.
The victim’s family said she was brain-dead after the wreck, and they were left in the “unimaginable position of making the heart-wrenching decision to let her go.”
In 1887, the Santa Fe Railroad announced that it was going to lay tracks going through the valley. But to the disappointment of the citizens, the tracks were laid one mile from the center of what would become San Marcos. Nevertheless, the town continued to grow, albeit at a very slow pace. So, in 1903, the people of the town picked up their homes and moved a couple of miles east along the railroad tracks to what now is Mission Road and Pico Avenue.
By 1905, the town had every convenience, including rural mail delivery and telephone service. Later that same year, the Richland School (now a wedding chapel on Woodland Parkway) was built, becoming the second school in San Marcos. The main business in San Marcos in the 19th and early 20th centuries was farming. In the mid-20th century, dairy and poultry production became a big part of the business in the town.
Like many other California cities, San Marcos grew rapidly after World War II. In 1956, the first water from the Colorado River arrived. Several small businesses were founded, and the population rapidly increased to 2,500. San Marcos became an incorporated city on January 28, 1963. In the 1970s, San Marcos flourished as the third fastest-growing city in the state, and it had a population of 17,479 by 1980. The population continued to boom during succeeding decades, surpassing 30,000 in 1990 and nearing 100,000 by 2020.