Hit-and-Run Driver Kills a Son, Dream : Fatality: Father grieves for Salvador Hurtado, 20, struck while working on a freeway crew.

Roberto Hurtado and his sons Salvador and Manuel arrived from Mexico earlier this year, looking for work and a better life. Each month, Hurtado sent a little money home to help his wife, Maria, and eight other children make ends meet.

But the promise of the American Dream was shattered early Tuesday morning when 20-year-old Salvador Hurtado, a flagman for a construction company working on the Santa Ana Freeway, was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver. The accident occurred at 1:40 a.m. near West Lincoln Avenue and South Loara Street, Anaheim Police spokesman Sgt. Joe Vargas said.

Roberto Hurtado said he can’t even afford to ship his son’s body back to Mexico.

“I’m going to need help to pay for the funeral,” said Hurtado, who lives in Santa Ana. “But one way or another I’ll take my son home and return to my job. In Mexico, I’m just a campesino [farm worker], working in the fields when work is available. But life is hard there. Here, I’m away from my wife and children, but I can at least work and earn enough to feed them.”

Salvador’s death was a tragic twist in Roberto Hurtado’s struggle to improve his family’s living conditions in Mexico. His wife and children, whose ages range from 23 to 2, live in San Ysidro in the state of Jalisco. Hurtado and his sons worked at Lambco Engineering and sent $700 to the family every month.

On Tuesday, Roberto Hurtado was searching for a way to tell his wife that he was bringing home his third-oldest child to bury.

“I called my cousin to tell her the sad news. We don’t have a telephone in my house, so she went and told my wife. I don’t know if I’m going to be able to talk to her. She missed me and my sons terribly. Whenever we [telephoned] she would always break down crying, because she wanted us home. Now, I’m taking our son back to her, to bury. She never wanted him to come to the United States in the first place,” the father said.

Salvador and Manuel Hurtado, 22, had worked at Lambco for about a month, company officials said. Roberto Hurtado, who has worked for the company off and on, said his sons had been in the United States about six months, and this was their first trip here from Mexico. Roberto and Manuel Hurtado were at home asleep when Salvador was killed.

Martin Lambaren, a company official, said Salvador Hurtado was wearing a reflective safety vest and the area was well lighted with construction lights. It was impossible for an unimpaired driver not to see the victim, Lambaren said.

Police said the vehicle, described as a teal-colored Chevrolet Malibu or Beretta, was traveling at 45 mph and did not stop. Witnesses could not provide additional information, not even if the driver was male or female.

Vargas said the autopsy also revealed flecks of red paint on Hurtado’s body and evidence that the suspect’s car was lowered. The car may have damage to the front end, hood and windshield, he said.

As a grieving Roberto Hurtado waited for his son’s autopsy to be completed, he reflected on what had been a good year up until Tuesday. With Salvador and Manuel working in the U.S., first in Fresno then in Orange County, Hurtado and his sons were sending home enough money each month to enable the large family to live modestly, if not comfortably.

“My sons are good boys,” he said. “They don’t do drugs or have other vices. Salvador was just beginning to experience life. He didn’t even have a girlfriend. If he had a passion, it was soccer. I want the person who killed him to know that he took the life of a good boy and an honest worker. All we wanted here was a chance to work. I will pray for justice.”