Witness Made Difference in Hit-Run Case

What happened to Elizabeth Hernandez may have been similar to the circumstances of other fatal hit-and-run accidents recently in Los Angeles County.

But what Juvencio Robles did made this case an exception: He helped authorities catch the suspect.

Robles can’t erase the images or blot out the sounds.

They are especially poignant whenever he drives his Mid-Valley Yellow Cab in El Monte.

Slam! He still hears the whump of the car in front of him striking the woman. He sees her body flying and falling limp, like a doll, on the street.

“But the worst thing was seeing the driver just leave, speed away like nothing had happened,” Robles, 43, recalled. “There was a woman behind, bruised and bleeding.”

Two months after the Aug. 7 incident, the 45-year-old victim died at County-USC Medical Center, leaving behind a husband and three children.

In hit-and-run incidents, officials say, there are usually no witnesses and very few arrests.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, which patrols unincorporated areas and 40 of the 88 cities in the county, reported 2,988 hit-and-run incidents from January through August of this year, but only 18 arrests, said spokesman Steve Sciacca.

Although most were minor and did not involve pedestrians, 121 of the accidents caused deaths or serious injuries, Sciacca said.

Los Angeles Police Department officials said they could not provide hit-and-run and arrest statistics.

What made the Hernandez case unusual is that Robles not only saw the accident, but he also followed the vehicle and radioed the license plate number and a description of what happened to his cab service dispatcher.

Cab operators in turn called police. The driver suspected of striking Hernandez, 20-year-old Brisa Soberanis, was arrested within minutes of the incident.

She has been charged with one count of felony hit-and-run. If found guilty, Soberanis, who faces a preliminary hearing Thursday, could serve up to three years in prison, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Harold Hofman Jr.

Soberanis’ attorney, Ramiro J. Lluis, declined to comment.

Police, city officials and friends of the victim praised Robles for being a good citizen. The El Monte City Council presented him with a certificate.

Robles feels his efforts were justified. “We should look out for each other more often,” he said.

But he is not able to forget Hernandez, the latest victim of a rash of fatal hit-and-run accidents across the county that have left several dead.

* On Oct. 13, a white van hit a man crossing a Van Nuys street about 7:15 p.m. Witnesses told police that the driver hesitated for a few seconds, then drove away. The victim suffered head trauma.

* On Oct. 9, a 4-year-old El Sereno boy was killed when he was struck by two hit-and-run drivers. Family members had gathered to celebrate a birthday. As the boy ran toward his mother, who had just parked her car across the street, he was struck first by one vehicle, then another.

* On Oct. 1, a female pedestrian was killed in a San Fernando Valley hit-and-run accident. She, another woman and a 5-year-old boy were crossing a street near Van Nuys Boulevard about 5:30 p.m. when a car hit them. The other woman and the boy were injured.

An alarmed county Board of Supervisors passed an emergency motion last month to form a task force on pedestrian safety.

Pedestrians in Los Angeles County are far more likely to die in hit-and-run accidents than the state average, according to Surface Transportation Policy Project analyst Michelle Garland. The group, which has offices in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., lobbies for transportation safety.

Across California in 1998, pedestrians made up almost 60% of hit-and-run fatalities; in Los Angeles County the proportion was 85%, Garland said.

That figure was much lower in neighboring counties, according to the group, although the overall rate of hit-and-run deaths was higher in San Bernardino (9.1 per 1 million population), Riverside (8.8) and San Diego (7.7) counties. Los Angeles County’s overall rate was 6.7 per 1 million, Orange County’s was 5.0 and Ventura County’s was 2.7.

In most accidents involving pedestrians, drivers stop and try to assist the victims, officials said. But when drivers speed off, they are rarely brought to justice.

“There are seldom any witnesses in this type of accident, and we have to match a face with a vehicle before we make an arrest,” said Bill Ankeny, assistant El Monte police chief. “It’s not easy.”

In cases such as the one involving Hernandez, even if other people witness the accident, they often fail to report it out of fear for their own safety, said El Monte Police Sgt. Ken Alva, who works with the department’s traffic safety bureau.

“It is not very common for a civilian to get involved in incidents like this,” he said. “That’s why we took special notice” of Robles.

The cabdriver admits initially fearing that he would be the target of revenge if he helped police arrest the driver. But he is pleased that the city recognized his efforts and has framed the commendation certificate.

Still, the thought of the dead woman continues to haunt him.

Neither he nor the victim’s friends have been able to contact the woman’s husband, Jaime Gutierrez, who has moved twice since the accident.

“I was hoping she would make it through this one,” said Maria Molina, a former neighbor and friend who visited Hernandez at the hospital after the accident. “She had lost a leg, a kidney. I just felt bad for her. It’s not fair.”

The events leading to Hernandez’s death began just after 10 p.m. Aug. 7 when she and Gutierrez walked out of an El Monte liquor store after buying cigarettes. The couple decided to cross the street and take the bus in the 2200 block of Peck Road.

A few blocks away, Soberanis was northbound at about 35 mph in a 1989 blue Oldsmobile Cutlass, police say.

Soberanis told police that she had been taking flu medicine and had removed her glasses to blow her nose, but could see that the traffic lights were green.

Gutierrez walked into the street at a corner signal, and his wife followed a few feet behind. He told police that he saw a dark vehicle driving toward them that, a split-second later, struck his wife.

The next day, Soberanis told police that she “thought somebody threw something at my windshield.” She left the scene, she said, because she felt threatened and nervous and had seen no pedestrians at the intersection.

In his cab about 40 feet behind her, Robles witnessed the accident and saw that the driver did not stop.

“I was thinking, ‘How can she not see the people crossing the street?’ ” he said.

After police caught up with Soberanis, they found a black purse on her car’s trunk, they said. Inside the purse, officers said, they found identification that belonged to Hernandez.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Hit-and Run Victims

Deaths caused by hit-and-run drivers in Southern California in 1998.

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Vehicle Vehicle County driver passenger Pedestrian Bicyclist Total Los Angeles 2 7 55 1 65 San Bernardino 3 5 6 1 15 Orange 2 2 6 4 14 Riverside 4 1 5 3 13 Ventura 1 0 0 1 2

Deaths per 1 million County population Los Angeles 6.7 San Bernardino 9.1 Orange 5.0 Riverside 8.8 Ventura 2.7

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Source: Surface Transportation Policy Project, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration