By: 3 Children Killed in Santa Ana Car Accident on Halloween
A parent’s worst nightmare, the death of a child. On Halloween night, 3 beautiful young girls were killed by a car that was apparently speeding down a residential street in Santa Ana. The girls, all 13 years old, were twin sisters Lexi Perez, Lexandra Perez, and their friend Andrea Gonzalez.
The driver of the small SUV, Jaquinn Ramone Bell, did not stop after hitting the girls, even though his windshield was smashed, and he himself had two of his own teenage children in the car. Bell then went so far as abandoning his car at a nearby strip mall and running away with his two children.
Three Families Ruined
Bell not only destroyed the hopes and dreams of the Perez and Gonzalez families, but selfishly chose to expose his own children to his criminal behavior when he fled from the scene and later abandoned his car.
This is a selfish human being who has lost the right to be present in the lives of his own children.
Responsibility
Bell, who has a long criminal rap sheet, will undoubtedly serve time for his crime. For the parents of the slain girls there can never be enough time that Bell serves behind bars.
And while financial compensation will not bring the girls back, the families are entitled to recover compensation for the wrongful deaths of their daughters. Unfortunately, a criminal like Bell is certain to have little, or no, insurance resources to pay the families for the wrongful deaths he caused in Santa Ana.
The families do have a right to seek compensation from their own auto insurance if they had Uninsured Motorist coverage. Additionally, the families have a right to obtain compensation from the City of Santa Ana if the street or crosswalk where they were hit were in a defective condition or a dangerous design caused the girls not to be visible to motorists.
The Future
Hopefully some positive can come from this horrible negative. If the street where the girls were killed can be made safer we hope the City and community will make changes necessary to protect pedestrians in the future.