MORGAN HILL
– A 15-month-old girl died Tuesday afternoon after she got in
the way of a slow moving car outside her home. Cynthia Marroquin
would have turned 16 months old Saturday.
MORGAN HILL – A 15-month-old girl died Tuesday afternoon after she got in the way of a slow moving car outside her home. Cynthia Marroquin would have turned 16 months old Saturday.
The accident occurred at 2:07 p.m. in the driveway of the house where Cynthia Marroquin inadvertently wandered into the path of the car, according to California Highway Patrol Officer Brad Voyles.
The residence, 545-B Live Oak Avenue is on a rural street in an unincorporated area north of the Morgan Hill city limits, where the little girl lives with her mother Faviana and her boyfriend Pedro Muniz.
Muniz, 34, was driving away from the house at a very slow speed when the child ran out to the car. Muniz did not see her. The auto was a 1991 Mitsubishi Montero pulling an empty car trailer.
Sheriff’s deputies, who were first on the scene started CPR, until paramedics arrived. There was one attempt to resuscitate the child with electrical shock to her heart, onlookers said. She was pronounced dead at 2:17 p.m. by AMR paramedics.
The investigation will continue, according to CHP Sgt. David Hill. He said such an investigation is routine.
”At this point there are no signs of negligence,” Hill said. “It’s a slow-speed tragedy.”
When the victim in a traffic fatality is not the person responsible the CHP must send a report to the District Attorney, Voyles said.
“The D.A. will determine whether or not it is reasonable to prosecute,” Voyles said. “Sometimes, when it is all within one family (as in this case) they will and sometimes they don’t. It depends upon the circumstances.”
Voyles said such a report normally takes about three weeks but, because of the Fourth of July weekend and holiday, this investigation may take a bit longer.
CHP Officer Kirby Sakamoto spent much of Tuesday afternoon gathering basic information from neighbors who live in the complex of three small houses connected by several driveways.
Hill said the family would be interviewed sometime today.
Late Tuesday afternoon friends and family had gathered around the small house to console the mother as did Fr. Oscar Morales, the family’s priest from St. Catherine’s Catholic Church. Fr. Morales visited those at the home a second time later Tuesday night.
Immediately after the accident, the girl’s mother sat outside the home, extremely distraught, repeating over and over in Spanish, ”my daughter, my daughter.”
Late Tuesday afternoon several small children played on the well-cared for lawn outside the Marroquin home while their parents waited to offer condolences.
”It kills me inside,” Hill said. ”Working (fatal accidents involving children) does not get any easier.”
Photographer James M. Mohs contributed to this report.
