A woman is dead and an Oakland driver is in jail after a hit-and-run collision in South Berkeley on Tuesday evening, November 3, and Berkeley police say the case was cracked within about two hours by a witness who came forward with a licence plate number and the department's automated licence plate reader (ALPR) system. Nikolaus Messina, 66, of Oakland was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence and gross vehicular manslaughter, according to the Berkeley Police Department, whose account was reported by Bay City News and by The Daily Californian, the University of California, Berkeley, student newspaper. The arrest allegations have not been tested in court, and Messina is presumed innocent unless and until he is proven guilty.
What happened at Ashby Avenue and Regent Street
Shortly before 6:40 p.m. on Tuesday, officers were called to the intersection of Ashby Avenue and Regent Street in South Berkeley after a report that a pedestrian had been struck by a driver travelling westbound, police said. Officers and emergency personnel found a 64-year-old woman with serious injuries; the Berkeley Fire Department took her to a local trauma centre, where she later died. The Daily Californian, citing police spokesperson Byron White and radio dispatch reports, reported that the woman was crossing the road and was found in the middle of the street, and that the vehicle was a silver Kia Soul. The driver had left the scene before police arrived. Police have not released the woman's name, and no further identifying information about her has been published in the reporting so far — Awaaz Punjab does not name her because authorities have not.
A witness, a plate number and a freeway stop
The break in the case came from the public. During the investigation, officers said, a witness provided the licence plate number of the suspect vehicle — a Kia Soul that had been spotted a few blocks from the crash scene. The plate number was entered into the department's licence plate reader system. Around 9 p.m., police received an alert that the Kia was entering Interstate 80 from the Gilman Street onramp. Officers pulled over the vehicle as it headed towards San Rafael, past the Interstate 580/80 split, and detained the driver. Following an investigation, police arrested the driver and identified him as Nikolaus Messina, 66, of Oakland.
In a statement, the police department credited community involvement and technology with the quick arrest: “The witness who came forward with the vehicle's license plate information provided a critical piece of evidence that, combined with ALPR technology and the swift response of our officers, helped bring this investigation to a timely resolution,” officers said. Ashby Avenue between Hillegass Avenue and Telegraph Avenue was closed to all traffic during the investigation and was later reopened, the department said in an email reported by The Daily Californian.
The charges Messina faces
Messina was arrested on suspicion of five offences, police said: driving under the influence; DUI with a blood alcohol level of 0.08% or more; DUI causing injury; hit-and-run causing injury; and gross vehicular manslaughter. Jail records show he is being held at the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, in Alameda County, on $380,000 bail, and he is scheduled to be arraigned on Friday — November 6. Suspicion-level arrests are allegations by police; the Alameda County District Attorney's office decides what charges, if any, are formally filed, and no filing decision has been reported yet. No statement from Messina or a defence lawyer appears in the reporting so far.
Ashby Avenue is one of South Berkeley's main east–west arterials, carrying traffic between the Interstate 80 corridor and the hills, and Regent Street sits in a dense residential grid a short walk from the UC Berkeley campus area. A fatal collision at evening rush hour on a street used daily by pedestrians, cyclists, bus riders and drivers is the kind of case that lands directly on the city's long-running debate about speed, street design and enforcement on its busiest avenues — and, in this case, on the separate debate about police use of automated licence plate readers, the technology that located the suspect car here.
Background: plate readers and the evidence chain
Automated licence plate readers photograph plates on passing vehicles and can alert officers when a plate on a watch list passes a camera. Police agencies across the Bay Area use the systems, and their use has been debated in city councils over how long plate data is kept and who can access it. In this case, according to police, the chain was human first and technological second: a witness saw the car near the scene and supplied the plate, officers entered that plate into the system, and the system flagged the car when it entered the freeway about two hours later. That sequence — and the department's own statement crediting the witness — is now part of the public record the prosecution will rely on if charges are filed.
What happens next
The next step is Messina's arraignment on Friday at Santa Rita Jail's court process in Alameda County, where a judge will address bail and the formal charges if the district attorney files them. Police have not announced any further arrests, and the investigation into the collision itself — including the exact circumstances at the intersection — continues. The coroner will formally identify the woman who died; until authorities release her name, she is described in reporting only as a 64-year-old woman. Awaaz Punjab will update this story when the charging decision and the victim's identity are released by officials.
Source: The Daily Californian — Woman dies following pedestrian hit-and-run in South Berkeley (Nov. 4, 2026)