Who:
Angelica Garcia Garcia, 23; Gerardo Cruz Jimenez Jiminez, 30; Freddie, 9; Cynthia Jiminez, 4; and Ivan Jiminez, 2, were killed at 6:55 AM on Sunday, Mother’s Day, 5/11/14, in a 2005-era Honda Accord at the intersection of Balsam Ave. and Main Street in Hesperia, CA. They were impacted by A 1995-era Ford Econoline delivery van driven by Joshua Smith, 30, who only had minor injuries. The family was en route to Disneyland to celebrate the birthday of Cindy, who would have turned 5 the following day.
How:
Smith was eastbound on Main St. He lost control, crossed the center line, and impacted the Accord, which was stopped at the stop sign at the intersection. Both vehicles traveled across Balsam to the northeast end of the intersection, where the van rolled over the right end of the Accord, trapping Angelica and her daughter, who died at the scene. Gerardo, who drove the Accord, was pulled by bystanders from the vehicle, and tended to by them until paramedics arrived. Freddie was also extricated from the vehicle, but he and his father died after being taken to a hospital. Ivan’s body was not discovered for another 6 hours when the van was lifted off the Accord.
The driver stated to a bystander he had simply looked away for a second. He has not been charged at this point. Per later revealed police reports, he was high on drugs and had fallen asleep while driving.
Why:
This is an incredibly tragic case that occurred because, in almost all certainty, Smith was speeding. Speed is implicated in 1/3rd of all auto fatalities in the US, and cases like this show why. Later information also revealed the driver had been both sleeping and under the influence of narcotics; he was a disaster waiting to happen, and a sad illustration of the levity with which far too many take driving in this country.
The 1995-era Econoline did not come with ESC, which might have helped him regain control before slamming into the Accord. Then again, ESC isn’t magic, and the collision might have occurred anyway, especially if he had been asleep. Similarly, the 2005-era Accord did not come with a roof score. I can’t help but wonder if the results of this collision might have turned out differently if the rollover had occurred on top of a 2011-era Accord, which comes with a “good” roof score. Of course, it is highly possible that fatalities would still have occurred. However, the severity of the injuries impacted by the van might have been sufficiently ameliorated by the roof to buy the hospital valuable time to save lives. There’s no way of knowing without knowledge of the forces placed upon the roof by the Econoline, the forces the roof had been designed to withstand, and an application of the crush force to a 2011-era Accord’s roof to provide a direct comparison.
What does appear to be the case is that the driver’s actions led to the deaths of an entire family of innocent individuals. This is the price of reckless driving, over and over and over again in this country.
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