Crash Victims Share Grave in Tijuana

A brother and sister from San Ysidro who died together in a weekend traffic collision near Los Angeles were buried together in the same grave Friday at a Tijuana cemetery.

As Ernestina Sanchez, who would have been 14 on Sept. 30, and her brother, Ernesto Jr., who turned 5 last month, were buried, their grief-stricken family and friends wept. Although the children were U.S. citizens, Ernesto and Cecilia Sanchez were forced to bury them here because the unemployed parents could not afford to bury them in their native country.

The parents--he wearing brown slacks and a plain cream-colored shirt and she dressed simply in black blouse and pants--knelt at the rocky grave site beside the open coffin of their daughter to bid a tearful goodby. The coffin of the boy, who suffered severe injuries to his face and head, was never opened.

A family member cried out in Spanish, “No. Not yet!” as the small coffin of the boy was lowered over that of his sister. Moments later, cemetery workers laid four concrete slabs over the coffins. Then the mourners watched as the workers poured two wheelbarrows full of cement into the grave before covering it with dirt.

“It seems so final. They truly have been taken away from us,” said a family member from Los Angeles who attended the funeral.

As the Sanchez children were being buried in the dusty cemetery, Ernestina’s twin sister, Cristina, was recovering at a Los Angeles-area hospital from injuries received in the same crash. The surviving twin suffered a fractured left leg and foot but begged to attend the funeral, said Ernesto Sanchez, 32.

The crash occurred Sunday about 11 p.m. near the Pioneer Boulevard off-ramp of the southbound Santa Ana Freeway. According to California Highway Patrol and family accounts of the crash, Cecilia Sanchez stopped the pickup she was driving on the shoulder so another son, Isaac, 7, could urinate.

Ten people were lying on the open bed of the truck and four were riding in the front during the return trip from La Puente, where the family had visited a relative. The CHP said that Michael Kenneth Andersen, 31, was driving another pickup that slammed into the Sanchez’s parked vehicle.

Also killed in the collision were Cecilia Sanchez’s sister, 22-year-old Angelica Flores, who was eight months pregnant. The fetus, a male, also died, as well as Flores’ daughter, Vanessa, 2.

Another sister, Irma Flores, 20, was injured and is in critical condition at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center. Flores’ daughter, Monica Paz, 6, was in serious condition at the same hospital.

CHP spokesman Mike Brey said Andersen had two drunk-driving convictions in 1981 and 1984 and was involved in another traffic collision on Jan. 20.

Andersen is being held without bail on manslaughter charges.