Girl, 10, Dies From Crash Injuries

A 10-year-old Ventura girl critically injured in a weekend car accident died Tuesday morning, prompting authorities to consider vehicular manslaughter charges against her mother who was driving the car.

California Highway Patrol officials said Tiffany Flores was lying on the backseat of her mother’s Toyota 4Runner and not wearing a seat belt when the vehicle rolled over on Pacific Coast Highway about 7:30 a.m. Sunday.

The child died at 3 a.m. Tuesday in the intensive care unit at St. John’s Regional Medical Center from head, brain and spine injuries suffered after she was ejected from the vehicle.

“Vehicular manslaughter certainly could apply in this case due to the neglect of the driver both in the buckling of the child and in losing control of the vehicle in which a death resulted,” CHP Officer Dave Cockrill said.

Investigators are unsure how the accident occurred, but speculate the girl’s mother, Debra Giannini, 35, might have fallen asleep as she was driving north early Sunday in the right lane.

Giannini then veered to the left onto the road’s sloped gravel median. When she tried to compensate, she apparently lost control of the vehicle and it flipped several times, according to the CHP. Paramedics found Tiffany unconscious several feet away from the crumpled car.

Giannini suffered only minor injuries in the accident that occurred near PCH and Rose Avenue. She was treated at the hospital and later released.

CHP officials say they expect to take their case to the Ventura County district attorney’s office with a recommendation to file the vehicular manslaughter charge.

“A seat belt definitely would have prevented the extent of injury that occurred,” Cockrill said. “Of course this is speculation, but when you compare the extent of the injury the 10-year-old sustained to the driver, who was injured but not to the same extent, you can’t help but compare the two.”

Tiffany, a Portola School fifth-grader, and her mother were on the way home from Malibu to their home in Ventura near the County Government Center when the accident occurred, Cockrill said. Neither Giannini nor Tiffany’s father, Vincent Flores, could be reached for comment.

Portola School students were traumatized by the death of their classmate and received special counseling Tuesday, Principal Jeff Davies said.

Tiffany had recently joined Portola’s fifth grade, Davies said, adding that he could not provide more information on the child or her interests because of confidentiality laws.

It will take several weeks for CHP officials to complete their investigation. They expect to turn over all material--along with the vehicular manslaughter recommendation--to the district attorney’s office. If prosecutors decide to go along with the expected recommendation, a subpoena will be filed for Giannini to appear in court.

The district attorney’s office has prosecuted similar cases but does so rarely, a spokeswoman said. The office was unable to provide a specific number of cases or any related information.

The law does not lay out specific guidelines in such cases, Cockrill said, adding that prosecutors will have to refer to case law precedents, including that of a Los Angeles County woman found guilty of vehicular manslaughter last year.

A jury found Lesia Smith Pappas at fault for improperly buckling up her 3-month-old son and convicted the Santa Clarita mother of vehicular manslaughter a year after the child was crushed to death in the August 1995 accident, in which she lost control of her car.

Prosecutors said the 33-year-old mother was guilty of criminal negligence for speeding and failing to buckle her children. She was taking her 7-year-old son and 9-year-old daughter to school when the accident occurred. Smith-Pappas and her older son were ejected through the windshield. Her daughter suffered minor cuts, but the 3-month-old--still in his car seat--suffocated when he became wedged against the van door.

At the time of the trial, prosecutors said the case stood out because the mother had been cited twice for seat belt violations and her driver’s license had been suspended.

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Safety for Young Riders

* In 1995, 195 children under the age of 15 died in traffic accidents on California roads. In 152 of those cases, the children were either not wearing seat belts or were not strapped into a car seat.

* State law requires car seats for all children under age 4 who weigh less than 40 pounds.

* State law requires that all children who weigh more than 40 pounds wear safety belts, preferably in the backseat.

* Motorists who fail to comply face a fine and court costs of $271.

* Those who see children not properly restrained may make a report to the California Highway Patrol office at 654-4571. The caller should note the license plate number and make and color of the vehicle. A letter of warning from the California Highway Patrol will be issued to the owner of the car.

* To ensure a child’s safety, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recommends that a child be properly buckled and sitting upright at all times.