Toddler in ICU after Colombian family dies in LA crash
A toddler is fighting for her life in the hospital after an explosive car crash with a driver allegedly fleeing a hit-and-run killed her parents and sister in Los Angeles on New Year’s Eve.
Hanna Pascagaza, 1, is in the pediatric ICU after a suspect allegedly blew a stop sign and crashed into her family’s vehicle at 11:20 p.m. on Sunday, according to a GoFundMe set up by the victims’ family.
The crash killed the tot’s father, Jose Manuel Pascagaza, 49; her mother, Luisa Bernal, 26; and her sister, Mia Pascagaza, 5, according to ABC 7.
The driver, Issac Jordan Kahari, 22, was allegedly fleeing the scene after he reportedly hit a male pedestrian in the Lomita area shortly before 11 p.m.
Kahari allegedly then hit the Pascagaza family’s vehicle while traveling at a “high rate of speed,” forcing the car to “violently” hit a street sign and fence on the corner of 60th Place and Normandie Avenue, according to the LAPD.
Witnesses who heard the attack described as an explosion, according to ABC 7.
A Good Samaritan began pulling the family from the “smoking vehicle,” police said. Jose Pascagaza was pronounced dead at the scene and Mia was declared dead after arriving to the hospital.
“As soon as I saw the little kids in bad condition, with blood all over them, I couldn’t hold it and I just started crying,” Amilcar Lopez told ABC 7.
Bernal and Hanna were transported to the hospital in critical condition.
The mother-of-two died from her injuries on Tuesday.
Hanna remains in the hospital, just days away from her second birthday.
Kahari was also brought to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries and faces murder and gross vehicular manslaughter charges, according to police.
Police believe Kahari was driving under the influence, but a toxicology report is pending, according to ABC 7.
The family of four moved to Los Angeles from Colombia a year ago to build a “better future for themselves,” according to the GoFundMe page.
Police are working with their family in Colombia, according to KTLA.
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