Police investigate fatal crash; fund set up for victims
Oct 02, 2009 | 2510 views | 18 
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At about 3:40 p.m. Saturday, a blue Mercedes-Benz SUV hit the driver’s side of a small silver Honda at the intersection of West Valpico Road and Sycamore Parkway, photos show. The crash killed back seat passenger Ricardo Navia, a 45-year-old Modesto man who worked in San Jose, who leaves behind a wife, Silvia, and three kids.
Relatives of Navia have set up a fund at Washington Mutual to help pay for his funeral, and to give financial aid to others now out of work due to crash injuries, said Navia relative Armida Arroyo. The account number is 4463813878. Arroyo can be reached at armada.arroyo@att.net.
The SUV that slammed killed Navia came to rest on the center median and the Honda stopped in the middle of the intersection, according to Tracy police Sgt. Luis Mejia.
The three other people in the car are recovering in a Modesto hospital. Navia’s sister, who suffered spinal injuries, was driving. Her husband, who had broken ribs, was in the passenger seat and their son, who has a broken wrist and a punctured lung, was behind him, a Navia relative said.
“They were coming too fast,” he said. “They didn’t see anyone.”
Tracy police spokesman Sgt. Tony Sheneman said officers are doing a computer simulation of the intersection, using data collected from the scene of the crash. Investigators are also looking at debris recovered from the intersection.
Sheneman said he was not sure if the SUV was racing another car.
“That would be a logical portion of any vehicle collision investigation,” he said.
Navia’s autopsy has been completed, Sheneman believed, but it is still in the San Joaquin County Coroner’s Office. Officers are still doing interviews with those involved in the crash, Sheneman said, and no definitive information will be released until the investigation is done.
Police records say the driver of the Mercedes walked away before officers arrived, but a person who's related to a passenger disagrees with that claim.
A sister of one of the SUV passenger's said a witness mistook the driver for her brother, as both were wearing white T-shirts. The sister said her brother panicked and walked away for a bit, but the driver told police that he was the one operating the vehicle.
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SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) -- A judge sentenced an unlicensed teenage driver to 15 years to life in the death of a classmate after he drank several shots of rum and crashed his mother's car.
Milad Moulayi, 18, of Tustin was sentenced Friday to the maximum term for second-degree murder for the 2008 single-car crash that killed 16-year-old Mackenzie Frazee after a party.
Orange County Superior Court Judge Carla Singer told the Moulayi that he had committed a "brutal and violent crime," and had been warned about driving without a license before.
Moulayi apologized and asked Frazee's family for forgiveness before he was sentenced.
Witnesses said at trial that the teenager was stumbling drunk when he insisted on driving Frazee home.
The sister sure is worried about her brother, was she there?
Hope there will be further article on how we could help the family without the husband and father. Hope she has her family living close by to help her out emotionally. For a while she will feel lost and the children might be more worried or have the fear of losing another parent!
Hate that such tragedy took place so close to the holidays!
TP, keep us posted on this family. Thank you.
CN
CN
Shelley13, have seen my brother trying to talk sense into his son, ...the eye rolling and the son walking away interrupting his "lectures"...that is also an issue for them.
Stay consistent, that is the motto for parents raising kids. Not easy, I can see that!! You're brave to even have kids! :0)
CN
CN
They even told me they would kill me if I did it again! Just can't help loving critters.
CN
I wish I could tell her it would get easier with time, but having three children, those words will not be well received at this time?
It got easier for me, I pray it will, also for her and the family. Never forgotten, but it gets more bearable.
Young drivers a scary. I try to stress that to my kids. But each time they go out, I worry. I hope they have really listened to me and if a tragedy does occur I hope they use their heads and do the right thing. Uh, that would include not walking away.
Just feeling like an idiot.. but glad the chipmunks okay! :0)
Need comfort food, brownies!!
CN
I wonder even to this day what it is about newly acquired drivers licence and speed among teen drivers..... it is a privilege and to abuse it is pricey!
Responsibility of looking both ways before crossing never ends!
I hope the family will get all the help they need, Christmas is coming, it will be the first without their father, so sad!!
CN
I was close to the area that day and heard many many sirens and we wondered what was going on. It worries me because I have seen many people ignore that stop sign lately and I don't know why. Its weird.
PS What did I read about your leg or a wheelchair or something? Is that why I haven't seen you lately? Were you taken to the infirmiry? Did I even spell that right? It's lonely in the cell without you :) haha. I hope you are OK.
So sorry it happened!
CN