Boy, 11, Hit, Killed by Truck While Riding a Skateboard

An 11-year-old boy who had told friends he wanted to be a professional skateboarder died pursuing his passion Wednesday when he was run over by an 18-wheeler in Orange.

Edson Ledezma was skateboarding with his 12-year-old brother, Miguel, about 2 p.m., police said, when the accident occurred at the intersection of Katella Avenue and Glassell Street.

The 18-wheeler had stopped for pedestrians before turning right from the westbound lanes of Katella onto the northbound lanes of Glassell.

As the truck made its turn, police said, the boy went down a handicap-access ramp in front of it and was dragged under the wheels.

“We were in the toy store,” Miguel said a few hours after the accident, his eyes bright with shock and tears. “We were walking back home. He was behind me. I heard this lady say that my brother had been hit.”

Miguel said he turned around and saw his brother’s crumpled body on the street. By chance, a family friend was also at the intersection and saw the accident. She called the boys’ parents.

No charges have been filed against the driver, who works for a materials handling firm in Orange and, according to DMV records, has had no convictions or accidents in the last seven years.

“We’re still looking into the details to see what, if anything, was done that was unsafe,” said Sgt. Dave Hill, a spokesman for the Orange Police Department.

The boy--a sixth-grader at California Elementary School who lived about two miles away--was pronounced dead at the scene.

As afternoon wore into evening, more than 40 members of Edson’s large extended family gathered in his parents’ Orange apartment. Christmas decorations still twinkled prettily from the tree in the corner, but the kitchen table was now converted into a tribute to loss, with white candles flickering atop the carefully starched tablecloth.

The family’s pastor sat with Edson’s mother and father in the small living room, as sober-faced relatives overflowed out the door. More arrived every minute, their children still clutching Christmas presents.

Just the day before, the Ledezma family had happily celebrated Christmas. Edson’s favorite present was a robot that turned into truck.

Edson loved taking things apart and putting them back together, his brother said.

“He was a good boy,” said his father, Miguel Ledezma, wiping tears from his eyes. “‘He worked hard in school. He got good grades.”

His father said that in addition to his son’s love of skateboarding, Edson also dreamed of becoming a doctor.

“He wanted to cure the sick,” he said. “He loved this.”

His extended family was proud of this dream and did all they could to help the studious boy.

His favorite books were the Harry Potter series, and so his parents took him to see “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” even though his Spanish-speaking parents couldn’t really understand it.

“It’s a terrible thing,” Hill said, “and the fact that it happened the day after Christmas doesn’t make it any easier.”

Two hours after the accident, the boy’s body still lay under a yellow tarp next to the crumpled red baseball cap he’d been wearing. His overturned skateboard was abandoned in the middle of the road.

Standing among the onlookers was Eder Diaz, 15, a neighbor of the Ledezma brothers who said he’d often accompanied them on skateboarding excursions.

“He was a good friend,” Eder said of Edson. “He was just a regular kid who skateboarded a lot. He was good at it.”

Edson was easy to get along with, cheerful, enjoyed telling funny stories and loved going to the movies, his friend said.

“I liked everything about him,” said Eder, who was in a nearby 7-11 store when the accident occurred. “I’m pretty sad about this.”

Funeral arrangements for the boy are pending.