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Los Osos family suffers third accidental death

October 7, 2015
Michael Brito

Michael Brito

In a span of less than a year, a Los Osos family has lost three of its members in fatal crashes.

The 24-year-old man killed Tuesday night in Los Osos has been identified as Michael Brito. Brito was struck by a car while attempting to cross Los Osos Valley Road in front of the Trinity United Methodist Church.

On Oct. 25, 2014, Brito was a passenger in an SUV that crashed on Highway 1 in Cayucos. The crash killed Brito’s 17-year-old brother, Simon Brito, and his 22-month old nephew, Mason Gibson.

Brito’s sister, Wendi Brito, suffered critical injuries in the crash but survived. Michael Brito was in fair condition following the crash.

The driver of the vehicle, 22-year-old Tanner Mengore, allegedly smoked spice prior to the crash. Prosecutors have charged Mengore with gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated.

On Tuesday night, Michael Brito was struck by a 2010 silver Prius headed westbound on Los Osos Valley Road at approximately 45 miles per hour.

The CHP says the driver was not at fault for the accident.

Brito’s family lives near the site of the accident. Shortly following the accident, family members were screaming with grief at the scene, KSBY reported.

The family previously lived in Morro Bay and currently lives in Los Osos.


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I would like to talk about the person here. I only knew Michael because I was a customer at Burger King where he use to work before his accident. I was very impressed with Michael and his work ethic. He was an extremely hard worker, polite and professional. That is a lot to say about a person making minimum wage who is usually just trying to make a few bucks while doing other things.


I was so impressed with the young man that I offered him a job. Instead he kept his job at BK and got himself a promotion, shortly before his accident.


I cannot speak to the rest of the things that everyone wants to focus on, I can only speak of Michael himself RIP Michael.


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Prayers to the family


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I echo everything you said about Michael. I always thought that that BK was just a step on the ladder for him. He always did more than he had to, like he really took pride in his work. Real nice guy, as was everyone in his circle, even Tanner Mengore.


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He was a very nice and genuine person. I would see him at his job at Conserv fuel, I don’t know if he was still working at BK as well.


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I’m kind of thinking that there are a LOT of people that have poor vision that don’t wear corrective lenses because they can get by without them… and that may be a reasonable explanation for this.


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My heart goes out to his family and friends. And it’s probably an inappropriate time to say this but I am in agreement with mkaney…that “how did HE not see the car?” In this era of the “it’s all about ME” attitude, I’m OFTEN irritated by the disrespect that pedestrians and bicyclist who have NO REGARD for vehicles. In parking lots, now-a-days people just walk right out in front of you in the middle of the lane instead of yielding to you or going to the crosswalk. They look at you like YOU are in the wrong?!?!? I thought the roadways are for the vehicles and the pedestrians should be more attentive and yielding UNLESS they have entered the crosswalk. Sorry for the rant, and again, no matter – I am sorry for this young man’s end of life and for his family’s loss.


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See now you took it where it didn’t need to go. Michael was NOT an “it’s all about ME” person. He was a very nice considerate guy. So there was some other factor involved, and most likely it was just habit. He probably walked across the street in that spot at night hundreds or thousands of times. Los Osos isn’t exactly a traffic jam in the evening, so he was probably barely paying attention. A Prius is a pretty quiet car, and it’s possible that the headlights happened to be at the same position as some lights left outside a business.


So here we have something more objective we can consider. Do all these lights on everywhere actually make people safer? If you are in a lit place, it destroys your night vision so you can’t see into dark areas. And people lurking in the dark can clearly see whether someone in a lit area is a potential victim. All the lights can also get confusing. If lights are on a car partially to make the car visible, then sometimes it may not stand out against all the other lights. There are MANY MANY people that have poor vision that do not wear glasses, and lights are quite blurry to them.


I don’t know if you were referring to the younger generations or just people in general when you said it was the “all about ME” era. But if it was the former, than I have to say that I find that the older generations are far more self interested than the younger ones now.. and the attitudes and behaviors in younger people that they are rewarding in government and the work place are disturbing.


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Right by where i live and the family lives right accross the street from that church, so Micheal was probably going home when he got struck the driver does hold some blame and how did the driver not see micheal to begin with??? If s/he was texting they should be put in jail. And they could have lied. And said they “just didn’t see them”


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It was dark out. The question is how did he not see the car?! This is why crosswalks do nothing but cause problems. Who gives a #$*$@ about right of way? Just PAY ATTENTION when you are crossing a street!


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Yes, we’re all saddened by Mr. Brito’s death but to rant against the driver when the CHP says he was not at fault, to assume without a shred of evidence he was texting (and by the way, it was HE — read the article with more care than you gave to your post), and to say the driver could have lied . . . . Each of your assumptions only drives your post more deeply into the morass of the nonsensical.


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Pedestrians have the right-of-way at ALL intersections (yes, drivers ignore this; if a pedestrian is at an intersection you are to stop and yield), and may not cross between two controlled intersections. “Controlled” means traffic lights, not just stop signs. Other pedestrian road crossings are at the pedestrian’s risk in the absence of driving violations like speeding or impairment.


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“Controlled” in this case means ONLY signalized intersections or police officers, not stop-controlled.


21955. Between adjacent intersections controlled by traffic control

signal devices or by police officers, pedestrians shall not cross

the roadway at any place except in a crosswalk.


Also, I was told by a professional in the traffic engineering field that the pedestrian has to “establish” their right-of-way at the intersection in order for a vehicle to be lawfully required to yield, which means they need to be IN the crosswalk, not just standing on the street corner.


21950. (a) The driver of a vehicle shall yield the right-of-way to

a pedestrian crossing the roadway within any marked crosswalk or

within any unmarked crosswalk at an intersection, except as otherwise

provided in this chapter.


Regardless of who is at fault, this is a sad story.


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