Mother, 8-Year-Old Child Die in Crash

A mother and daughter on their way to the mother’s housecleaning job died Friday morning after their car spun out of control on a rain-slick street and was broadsided by a pickup truck, police said.

The accident that killed Silvia Garibay Funez, 28, and her 8-year-old daughter, Viridiana Funez, occurred around 7 a.m. on Roscoe Boulevard west of Shoup Avenue, a time that the third-grade girl typically would be getting ready for school at Napa Street Elementary.

But Friday, the mother and daughter look-alikes--both with wide smiles, long, brown hair and bright brown eyes--were going to work together at a Canoga Park house, said Carmindo Funez, 30, Silvia’s husband and Viridiana’s father.

“Today, Viridiana was working with her,” said Funez, covering his face with his hand and breathing deeply. “This was the first time she goes. I don’t know why.”

When Silvia Funez left for work Friday morning, she was in good spirits, her husband said. Like other immigrants from Mexico, she “was happy that she was able to work and help her family,” he said.

The couple, who had been married for 10 years and used to live in Canoga Park, also have a 4-year-old daughter.

At least two dozen friends from the family’s church crowded Friday into the Funezes’ modest Bryant Street apartment to offer prayers and condolences to the husband, who works as a cook at a Denny’s Restaurant.

“We want to give him comfort and hope,” said Tito Jaimez, one of the church friends who sat with Carmindo Funez in the couple’s dark bedroom, open Bibles in hand.

Photographs of the grinning mother and daughter lay nearby on a bedside table.

Police said Silvia Funez was driving her four-door Hyundai west on Roscoe when it skidded into the eastbound Chevy pickup’s path after she swerved to avoid striking a third vehicle that had veered into her lane.

Valley Traffic Officer Carl Helm said investigators do not plan to file charges against the pickup truck’s 31-year-old male driver or to look for the driver of the 1978 Ford Granada that first strayed into Funez’s lane.

A preliminary investigation indicated that Funez may have been speeding in the 35-mph zone on Roscoe, which could have made it easier for her to lose control on the wet road, Helm said.

“When the street is wet you don’t drive at the speed limit. You drive at a safe speed,” Helm said.

The pickup struck Funez’s car on the right passenger side where Viridiana was sitting. Both mother and daughter were wearing seat belts, but they suffered massive head, neck and internal injuries from the force of the crash, Helm said.

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Leff is a Times staff writer and Torres is a correspondent.