`Gruesome` Calif. Crash Kills Toddler, 2 Adults
Oct. 22--FONTANA -- Tattoo artists Jake Bojorquez and Matt Thomas are used to seeing flashing police lights and wreckage following the frequent car crashes outside their shop at the corner of Foothill Boulevard and Citrus Avenue.
What they saw Monday night after hearing the familiar sound of screeching tires went far beyond what they had seen before.
"It was the most gruesome thing I've ever seen," said Bojorquez, 32, a Fontana resident.
The Inkspot Tattoos employees dashed across their lot to the intersection where they found one car that had been rear-ended so hard that the trunk was where the back seats should have been.
Inside the vehicle lay a 2-year-old girl dead in her car seat. A woman sat slumped over, barely breathing. And the man behind the wheel was pinned among the wreckage, also dead.
The victims of the 8:38 p.m. crash have been identified by San Bernardino County coroner's officials as Shawn Michael Scott, 33, of Fontana and Helen Terry Amaya, 33, of El Monte. The toddler, a Fontana resident, has not been identified.
Fontana police and San Bernardino County firefighters came to the scene after receiving a report of the crash.
Police said a 24-year-old Fontana resident crashed a 2000 Dodge into the back of Scott's Toyota, which was stopped. The impact forced both vehicles into the intersection.
A third driver in a 1994 Dodge, who was heading west, struck the other Dodge. The driver of the first Dodge suffered a broken ankle and was taken to Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton for treatment.
No one in the third car was injured.
Witnesses dashed to the crash scene, trying to pry open the passenger-side door to get the occupants out. Tensions were high as people waited for emergency personnel to arrive.
"There was some lady in the middle of the street praying," Bojorquez said. "Two guys almost started fighting over who was at fault."
Matt Thomas, 34, of Riverside looked into the Toyota, and said he saw severe head injuries on the baby. He then saw Amaya, who appeared to be still alive.
"I cut her seatbelt because there was gas leaking from the car," he said.
He also checked Scott's pulse, but couldn't find one.
Thomas and Bojorquez remained shaken on Tuesday, saying they couldn't get the image of the toddler out of their heads.
"I went home and the first thing I did was kiss my kid," Thomas said.
Police are continuing to investigate the cause of the crash and did not mention whether anyone had been cited.
Copyright 2013 - San Bernardino County Sun, Calif.
