Selma e-bike crash kills 15-year-old, community mourns student

Selma police said a 15-year-old e-bike rider died after a Tuesday afternoon crash at Rose and South Highland avenues, and about 100 people later gathered in Fowler to mourn Manuel Uriel Hernandez. The collision put a Fresno County family, a school community and local investigators on the same painful timetable: a hospital trip, a death, and then a vigil.

Officers responded at about 1:37 p.m. on June 16 to the crash near Rose Avenue and South Highland Avenue. Police said the driver stayed at the scene and cooperated with investigators, and they found no indication that drugs or alcohol were involved. Hernandez was taken to a hospital after the collision and later died from his injuries.

The crash unfolded on a route tied to school travel. Family accounts differed on whether Hernandez was riding home from school or heading to pick up his brother from school when he was struck. In either account, he was on an afternoon trip that many students and parents in Selma and Fowler would recognize as routine until the moment it turned fatal.

The loss reached Fowler High School, where Hernandez had spent his freshman year and played on the wrestling team. School leaders said counselors would continue to be available to students, with support remaining in place for Fowler High’s 800 students as classmates processed the death. Wrestling coach Rick Barron remembered Hernandez as a student with an infectious smile and upbeat personality, the kind of presence that stood out in a program built around teamwork and discipline.

That same grief shaped a Friday evening vigil in Fowler, where relatives, classmates and friends came together to remember Hernandez. A fundraiser set up to help his family with funeral expenses described him as a bright, loving 15-year-old and said he was a twin, leaving behind his twin brother, mother and father. The fundraiser also noted the family was not prepared for the sudden financial burden.

For Selma police, the crash remains under investigation. For Fowler and the surrounding neighborhoods, the immediate impact is already clear: one teenager is gone, students are still being counseled, and a school commute ended in a loss that now hangs over both cities.