Posted on 05/05/2007 8:34:25 AM PDT by TheDon
Lori Coble beamed as she posed for the camera with her husband and their three small children. Katie was still a baby, perched on Lori's hip. Kyle and Emma – in matching white shirts, jeans and flip-flops – grinned as they crowded on their dad Chris' lap.
"Kyle, Katie and Emma – the crazy monkeys" as the Ladera Ranch family's Web site proclaimed. The kids grew up so fast.
The dream was abruptly shattered about 1:10 p.m. Friday when a big-rig slammed into the back of the family's 2006 Chrysler Town & Country minivan on the southbound Santa Ana (I-5) Freeway north of Oso Parkway.
The three Coble kids were in the back of the minivan, strapped into car seats and booster seats. Lori was driving. Grandmother Cynthia Maestri was in the front passenger seat.
Two-year-old Katie and 5-year-old Kyle were rushed to Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo. Katie died just before 2 p.m. Four-year-old Emma died minutes later at Saddleback Memorial Hospital in Laguna Hills, California Highway Patrol officer Katrina Lundgren said.
....
CHP investigators spent hours questioning the driver, Jorge Miguel Romero, 37, of Apple Valley, who said he saw the traffic backed up, applied the brakes but couldn't stop in time.
Fontana-based leasing company Aurora TRL, which owns the truck, did not return calls for comment.
(Excerpt) Read more at ocregister.com ...
Wrong! I was hit by an 18-wheeler double gasoline tanker driven by a 21 year old Black kid. (He changed lanes for no reason, sideswiped me and knocked me off the road. My car was totalled and daughter and I injured.) He never even stopped, and left the scene. Following the accident I did a great deal of research on exactly who is driving the rolling bombs on our highways, and discovered there is such a shortage of big rig drivers, that the industry has a concerted effort to recruit ANYBODY that can climb into a truck. They are especially hoping to hire more women and minorities. Many of the schools that supposedly train big rig drivers are just diploma mills, and grant certificates to anyone who pays a hefty fee...just like buying a green card is for Illegals. Thousands of trucks on our highways are being driven by incompetent drivers. Be VERY careful around big rigs!
And to add insult to injury, the insurance company of the outfit whose truck hit me, is still fighting me, even though their driver disappeared as of the day of the accident. I wish I had the thousands they've spent on lawyers fighting me.
I can’t stop crying. This is so tragic. Prayers up for this family, now just a couple, with all their precious joys up in heaven.
No, he wasn't an illegal. He is a convicted felon, who last served about 10 years ago. The problem was he was doing over 70 in that interchange maze, when he should be at 50 mph max. In addition, the truck, which is registered and driven in the U.S., not Mexico, had numerous saftey violations.
Sad, isn't it? If we had some sort of plan to keep illegals out we wouldn't even be having this conversation.
I ran into an illegal a while ago at the local gas station. He couldn't even tell the clerk what number pump he was on. His English was THAT deficient.
Of course, listening to you I suppose I was wrong to assume he was an illegal too.
Then at Lowes recently an illegal walked by with an Aztlan t-shirt. I'm still ashamed I thought of him as an illegal. Perhaps five border crossings and a baptismal in the Rio Grande will absolve me of my sins.
Well, yes. It's entirely possible, deficient English and all, that the person you saw at the gas station was here on a valid work visa. People don't learn English to come up here and work in agriculture.
If you choose to believe every Mexican you see is illegal, that's up to you. I just find it distasteful and I won't do it.
If he has a conscience, agreed.
I’m not sure what “pure hatred” you are referring to on FR. I guess I don’t frequent those threads.
I’m upset with Mexicans who come here illegally.
I’m more upset with our federal gov’t which refuses to perform a basic function, i.e. controlling the federal borders.
I’m most upset with apathetic American voters who don’t make this issue a greater priority when choosing federal representatives.
As for assuming all Hispanics in the LA/Orange County are illegal, that’s a symtom of rampant illegal immigration. We have been suffering the effects of it for decades here in So Cal. I would be curious to know what percentage of Hispanics in the LA/Orange County area are illegal.
With some of folks apathy would be an improvement.
The ones who seem to relish any opportunity to jump on those who are rightly outraged at the situation.
And they're usually the ones least affected by it.
LOL--With his luck, Antonin Scalia will be in charge of deciding whether to hear the case.
Terrible, prayers for the children and for the grieving family.
No, it's P-Marlowe BS. If it is a statistical fact, then you should have no trouble proving it.
Because white people never get into fatal collisions and nobody with a spanish sounding name could possibly be an American citizen. He was probably a Muslim too. Deport em all and nuke mecca. /sarc
Oh my god this is so sad. I would not want to live if my children died this way.
I know...I wouldn’t either. I pray for the family who lost their world. I pray for guidance for the community, that they would know how to help these parents through their grief.
Good points. That is why I will also not donate to FR.
The hideous crash we had in Florida - where a driver rear-ended a van full of kids and 7 of them were killed - was caused by a local black driver. Does that mean all black truckers are bad? No, this guy had several prior convictions and (IIRC) even one suspension - but the company still let him drive.
I think a lot of posters here hate black people just about as much as Mexicans.
good answer, wish I had thought of it
Good for you and others that don’t make assumptions without knowing the facts. There are many legal immigrants to this country and many citizens that do not speak English proficiently.
My husband, was born and raised in Puerto Rico and speaks mostly Spanish. He started learning English when he moved to the mainland, but wasn’t very good at it for a long time. Even twenty years later, when things are stressful or he gets angry, he speaks in Spanish. You would be surprised how many people call him an illegal and tell him to go back where he came from. He is also mistaken for Middle Eastern sometimes(I cannot explain why??).
The sad thing is that he has been a firefighter/paramedic for years. He served in the first Gulf War, and was also on site for 5 weeks in the WTC recovery efforts. You won’t find anyone more loyal or committed to the US. It seems that for many people dark skin + Spanish speaking, means he is an illegal. Then there are the “citizens” who are unaware that Puerto Rico is part of the US, but that is an entirely different problem.
?
what is at issue is: quite a few untrained drivers, if you bothered to read the rest of what I wrote, since our president seems to want to let people who have COMMITTED FRAUD (FRAUDULENT PAPERWORK ETC. ) stay in this country and not go to jail and deported, if found to have committed s.s. fraud, id fraud, etc (fraud that we americans go to jail for) that’s where the illegal part came in: send the picture to W.
i think what is scary about trucking is that it is not a “profession” anymore, with standards, testing, proper training, and the wages are depressed, and this is only going to get worse with trucks from mexico, with mexican drivers, and from what i have read, not bound to any safety checks and licensing in this county
that is what is scary and our pres wants it to continue
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