Parents of Former SPHS Student Killed by Truck File Suit

The parents of a former  student who was killed by a truck last year on the Pomona (60) Freeway filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the state and city of El Monte after officers allegedly ignored pleas to help the 17-year-old girl get home, according to City News Service. 

"The officers failed to pursue the distraught minor or in any way attempt to stop her from walking along at night in a high-crime area,'' the lawsuit said.

Stating wrongful death and negligence, Anette Esmaili and Rodolfo Salazar of Monterey Park, mother and father of Sophia Ilona Salazar, brought the lawsuit to Los Angeles Superior Court and are asking for unspecified damages. 

Salazar attended South Pasadena High School from 2008 to 2009. She participated in track and was a part of “Helping Paws Club” while at SPHS, according to Tiger Online, the school's student newspaper. 

The Pasadena City College student went to a party at a Monterey Park home on May 28, 2010 and left around midnight to return home. She walked a mile before getting lost and around 12:30 a.m. on May 29, she approached two California Highway Patrol officers at a 7-Eleven store on Monterey Pass Road in Monterey Park asking for help in getting home, according to the report City News Service. 

Although the officers hailed Salazar a cab, she couldn't pay the $10 fare. She then continued walking home, according to the lawsuit.

"Although Sophia was visibly shaken, disoriented, lost and alone, the ... officers refused to drive her home a few miles away,'' the suit said.

Salazar was struck by a Jeep about 1 a.m. while walking along 60 Freeway near the intersection of the Long Beach (710) Freeway in East Los Angeles. Both El Monte police and the CHP later received calls regarding a young woman walking alone. While a helicopter was sent, neither agency sent a rescue vehicle, according to the lawsuit.

Attorneys for El Monte and the state could not be immediately reached for comment, City News Service said.