CHP Officers Rescue Newborn, Toddler and Mother from Burning Wreckage

Two California Highway Patrol officers pulled a young woman and her 9-month-old daughter and 2-year-old son from an SUV moments before it erupted in flames today.

The 2001 Chevrolet Tahoe slammed into a tree on the northbound Costa Mesa (55) Freeway offramp to 17th Street about 3:50 this morning, ejecting 22- year-old Leonardo Morales, who is suspected of driving under the influence with his family in the vehicle, according to CHP Officer Florentino Olivera.

Two CHP officers patrolling the area saw flames at the scene of the crash but were too far down the offramp to respond to the emergency, so they called it in to dispatchers, Olivera said.

Because of their quick response, he said, two other officers were able to get to the victims before it was too late.

When CHP Officers Daryl Hansen and Timothy Montoya got to the scene of the fiery crash, they saw Morales lying on the ground, the toddler dashing around in a state of panic and 22-year-old Kathy De Rosa stuck in the front passenger seat, Olivera said.

“The 2-year-old was running around and crying and pointing at the car,” he said.

As the two officers were working to pull De Rosa out, Montoya heard a baby crying in the back seat. The baby was face-down, bloodied, on the floorboard of the rear driver’s side seat, Olivera said.

“By then the car was fully engulfed” in flames, he said.

Montoya quickly snatched the baby and ran her to safety, Olivera said. The two officers also managed to get De Rosa out of the SUV.

Montoya has a son and daughter about the same ages, “so it hit home,” said Olivera, who added that Hansen wrenched his back in the rescue but did not require hospital treatment.

The two adults were taken to Western Medical Center in Santa Ana and their children were taken to Children’s Hospital Orange County, Olivera said.

The 9-month-old sustained “serious lacerations to her legs and feet,” according to Orange County Fire Authority Capt. Steve Concialdi. The 2-year-old boy sustained a head injury and a deep bruise on his head, the captain said.

Morales sustained a back injury and De Rosa had cuts to her face, according to Concialdi, who said both adults were listed in moderate condition.

Morales is expected to be booked on suspicion of driving under the influence when he is released from hospital care, Olivera said.

It appears Morales lost control of the vehicle while trying to negotiate a right curve in the off-ramp and slammed into a tree, he said.

Morales and De Rosa were arrested together last Aug. 31. Court records show that on Sept. 3, Morales pleaded guilty in that case to driving under the influence of alcohol and on a suspended license, and De Rosa pleaded guilty to misdemeanor resisting arrest.

De Rosa was accused of brandishing a deadly weapon in front of an officer in the arrest, but the charge was dismissed as part of the plea deal, according to court records.

On March 13, De Rosa pleaded guilty to driving under the influence, driving with a blood-alcohol level over the legal limit of .08, child abuse and endangerment and driving without a valid driver’s license, all misdemeanors, according to court records.

That plea stemmed from a Dec. 14 arrest in Santa Ana, in which prosecutors accused her of driving with a blood-alcohol level of .20 and causing injury to two children in the car.

De Rosa was placed on four years of informal probation for the March DUI conviction and was ordered to participate in an alcohol program for first offenders and a child abuser’s treatment program.

Court records also show Morales has had trouble paying more than $4,000 in fines related to his various convictions, which include driving on a suspended license in 2012. Last September, he was sentenced to three years of informal probation and ordered to participate in an alcohol program for first offenders.

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• City News Service
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