A 3-year-old Santa Ana boy who was injured in a major accident
on Highway 156 and Fairview Road three weeks ago is brain dead,
according to the California Highway Patrol.
n By Erin Musgrave
Staff Writer
Hollister – A 3-year-old Santa Ana boy who was injured in a major accident on Highway 156 and Fairview Road three weeks ago is brain dead, according to the California Highway Patrol.
The child is being kept alive on life-support at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, but would die if taken off it, said CHP Officer Terry Mayes.
The boy’s mother, 21-year-old Santa Ana resident Ana Medina Escalera, is still at Stanford Medical Center with internal injuries, Mayes said.
Escalera’s husband has been traveling between hospitals to visit his wife and child, she said.
Ten people were injured in the accident when San Jose resident Jose Moreno Mendoza ran a red light at the intersection of Highway 156 and Fairview Road, slamming his 2004 Chevy Silverado pick-up truck into a 1996 Astro van filled with eight people, according to the CHP.
The child was in a car seat on the left side of the van, which took the brunt of the impact, according to the CHP.
The CHP will charge Mendoza with manslaughter if the baby is taken off life-support and dies, Mayes said.
By law, the CHP can charge an individual within one year of the accident, she said.
Mayes said it’s a possibility Mendoza could hire an attorney to argue that the child wasn’t killed from the accident, but from being taken off life-support.
The driver who caused the accident, Mendoza, was hospitalized with moderate injuries and released shortly after the accident, Mayes said.
The other people involved in the accident do not have life-threatening injuries, according to the CHP.
