Improper Belts Blamed in Fatal I-5 Crash

A Mother’s Day traffic accident that killed a Fullerton woman and her year-old son might have been averted if they had been wearing proper seat restraints, officials said Monday.

Juana Marin-Trejo, 33, and her son, Daniel Jaramillo-Marin, both were wearing lap belts when they crashed at 7 p.m., on Interstate 5. But California Highway Patrol Officer Carol Kelly said that by law the mother also should have been wearing her shoulder belt and the boy should have been restrained in a children’s car seat.

“This stresses the point of seat belts, of child restraints,” Kelly said.

Juan Jaramillo, 29, was driving his pickup truck about 65 to 70 mph just south of Avenida Vaquero with his wife and son in the front seat, Kelly said. The crash occurred when Sandra Parra-Avina, 29, of Garden Grove experienced engine problems and was slowing to move out of traffic, Kelly said. Jaramillo swerved to the left, but the front right portion of his truck clipped Parra-Avina’s slowing car in front of him, Kelly said.

“The truck was just totaled,” Kelly said.

There is no evidence that alcohol or excessive speed played a role in the crash, which shut down the freeway’s southbound lanes, officials said.

“It was just that [Juan Jaramillo] was inattentive, talking to his wife driving down the freeway,” Kelly said. “He was so close behind that car, there was no way to get out of the way in time.”

No one has been cited, Kelly said, and the accident remains under investigation.

Juan Jaramillo was in stable condition Monday at Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo. Two other children who were properly belted in the back seat of his truck were treated and released, officials said.

Parra-Avina was in stable condition at the same hospital, while her 5-year-old daughter, Michelle Parra, was treated and released, officials said. Both were wearing proper belts, the CHP said.