Seventh-Grade Girl Honored for Rescue

When a drive home from softball practice suddenly turned into a terrifying plunge down a 100-foot Tujunga embankment last week, 13-year-old Vanessa Esquivel was there for her family.

Despite an injured shoulder, Vanessa helped extract her younger brother and sister from the family’s crumpled GMC Suburban and calmed them before climbing the steep grade to get help for their mother who was pinned in the vehicle.

For her calm in the face of crisis, her courage and the care she displayed for her injured mother and siblings, Vanessa was honored Tuesday by the city of San Fernando and Assemblyman Tony Cardenas (D-Sylmar) at Santa Rosa School, where she attends seventh grade.

“This is nice, but I don’t think I was a hero. I just did what I had to do for my family,” said Vanessa, who received flowers and balloons from her classmates at a special ceremony on the school playground.

With her sister Briana, 9, and her brother Eric, 5, at her side, Vanessa described what happened after their mother, Alvina Esquivel, swerved to avoid debris on Tujunga Avenue and ended up at the bottom of an old dumping pit.

“It was really scary,” Vanessa said. “You always see things like that, but you don’t think it will ever happen to you.”

The children suffered only bumps and bruises in the accident, but their mother sustained a broken left shoulder, fractured pelvis and neck injuries. After waiting for her brother to stop crying, Vanessa took lawn chairs from the back of the vehicle and set them up for her siblings before setting off in the dark up the steep embankment.

“She’s quick of mind and very athletic and she has a lot of common sense for a girl of her age,” said Santa Rosa’s principal, Sister Antoinette Clay. “It’s a miracle that they all got out alive.”

Vanessa’s maternal grandfather, Nick Lamas, said the accident could serve as the basis for an ad campaign on seat belt safety.

“It was simply a matter of buckling up,” he said. “Their seat belts saved their lives.”