2 Students Die, Sister of 1 Injured in Collision

A compact car carrying three college women home from a party ran a red light early Friday in Northridge and was broadsided by a two-ton delivery van, killing two of the women and critically injuring the third, authorities said.

The victims, two of them sisters and roommates, were students at California State University, Northridge. The accident occurred about 3 a.m. as they drove home from a party celebrating the end of final exams and the beginning of Christmas break, police and friends said.

Anne Salazar, 22, the driver, was killed. Her sister, Aida Salazar, 21, had been riding in the front seat and was in very critical condition at Northridge Hospital Medical Center with severe head injuries, police and hospital spokesmen said.

Maribel Reyes, 18, of Sepulveda, had been in the back seat and died of massive head injuries at the same hospital about two hours after the accident, said Sgt. Robert Farkas.

Van Driver Survives

The car was going north on Lindley Avenue. Police quoted witnesses as saying it ran the light and was struck by a van headed east on Roscoe Boulevard. Donald Teague, 41, of Pacoima, the van driver, was treated at Northridge Hospital Medical Center for minor injuries and released, said Officer Gary Wachtler.

A friend of the Salazar sisters said they lived together with a friend in a Reseda apartment about a block from the accident scene.

“They got along really well, going out on dates together, to movies together and studied together,” Moiza Carrillo, the friend, said.

“Their friends were basically the same friends,” their roommate, Ada Angeles, said. “They shared a room together. They shared clothes. They got along really well. There was a big love between them.”

Earlier that evening, the Salazars had attended a small potluck dinner party at Reyes’ house, then headed for a larger party at a friend’s house off campus, Angeles said.

“They were all excited about the party and everything,” she said. “They were all happy that finals were being over. They were excited about going home. What’s even sadder now is I’m picking up the room, and they had presents for all their relatives.”

Both girls are from the small Kern County town of Arvin, Angeles said. Aida Salazar, an urban studies major, is scheduled to receive her bachelor’s degree in the spring. She plans to attend UCLA in the fall to begin work on a master’s degree in the same field, Carrillo said. She is active in church, campus and community activities, including recruitment of minority students to attend college and handing out pamphlets and picketing on behalf of striking farm workers, he said.

Anne Salazar was a sophomore and had planned to major in sociology. Carrillo said both sisters were active in a MECHA, the Chicano Movement of Azatlan, a campus Hispanic group.

A close friend of Reyes’ family, Gabriel Storegano, 16, said Reyes graduated from Lincoln High School in Lincoln Heights in 1985 with an A average and received a scholarship to CSUN.

Helped People

“She wanted to study child psychology. She wanted to become a psychologist,” he said. “She was the kind of person you could explain your problems to you, and she would try to help you out. She helped a lot of people.

“She was kind to everybody. There was nobody she really disliked. Everybody was a friend to her.”

Marco Telagarza, 22, of Northridge, another longtime friend of the Reyes family, said Reyes was the oldest of four children in the family and the first of her relatives to go to college.

“The family was very proud of her,” Telagarza said. “She was top of her class in high school. She was very active in her first semester of college, getting involved in some of the clubs already.”