2 Girls Killed When Car Jumps Curb at O.C. School

Two young girls were killed outside an Anaheim school Tuesday afternoon when a car jumped a curb in the driveway and crushed them against a wall.

The accident occurred in a congested pick-up and drop-off zone in front of Centralia Elementary School as about 300 students were leaving for the day. Second-grader Bianca Perez, 7, of Buena Park died instantly; Nidia “Liz” Curiel, 6, a first-grader from Anaheim, was declared dead at West Anaheim Medical Center.

Nidia’s mother and 3-year-old brother, Samir, had walked to school to pick her up and were standing just a few steps away when she was hit.

Nidia had crouched down to pick up her backpack when the car lurched forward and struck the girls.

Her brother was a witness, said Nidia’s father, Armando Curiel, 27.

“He saw everything,” Curiel said Tuesday evening, sobbing as friends tried to comfort him outside the small Anaheim mobile home they share with another family. “He saw the blood. He saw his sister die.”

Nidia’s mother was inconsolable Tuesday night, her husband said. As Curiel spoke, Samir walked from one adult to another, saying, “The car hit her. The car hit her.”

Nidia’s schoolmate Bianca had just started at Centralia last week, said her uncle Luis Herrera, who arrived to pick up his two daughters and niece Tuesday just after the accident.

Both daughters, Stephanie and Melissa, ages 7 and 6, were next to Bianca, he said, but saw the car coming in time to scramble out of the way, yelling for their cousin to do the same.

Herrera recognized his niece’s outfit--blue jeans and a white T-shirt--and her pink Powerpuff Girls backpack. When he asked a teacher what had happened, she said, “Don’t look.”

The driver, Maria Juarez, 50, of Anaheim, told police she was picking up a relative when she lost control of her car, perhaps accelerating instead of hitting the brakes, authorities said.

Juarez had backed into an unauthorized red zone where trash receptacles are stored, police said, and was exiting that temporary parking spot at 2:23 p.m. when her red Dodge crashed. Drugs and alcohol were not a factor, and Juarez was not arrested or cited, though police planned to talk to her again.

“We’re still piecing everything together,” Sgt. Rick Martinez said. “This is a very safe and well-monitored campus. We haven’t had any problems. At this point, this is just a very tragic accident.”

Breanna Torrence, 8, who witnessed the accident, said the girls were “just talking” near the curb.

The driver “ran into the two girls and bumped their heads into the wall,” Breanna said.

About 15 children saw the accident, police said. School officials called their parents, and the children spoke to crisis counselors before leaving campus.

“I was scared,” Breanna said. “I just ran. I won’t see them again.... They were nice. We play at recess. I think it was sad. My friend thought it was sad too. We both started crying.”

Parent Heather Rodriguez said her daughter also witnessed the accident. As she was leaving the school Tuesday evening, she hugged her 8-year-old daughter, Kristine, and said tearfully, “I’m having a hard time dealing with this. I’m broken up a lot. She doesn’t realize what happened to the girls. It’s going to be a lot to deal with in the future.”

Outside the school, teachers and parents hugged each other, some crying, others dazed.

By evening, several parents had set up a memorial to the two girls with teddy bears, candles and a Spanish book of Scriptures. Behind it, a wall of the school was dented from the crash, just under a sign saying “Office.”

Janice Gregory was there with her two children lighting candles. Their thoughts were with both the young girls and the driver. “Pray for her as well,” Gregory said. “It has to be the most horrible thing to have to live with for the rest of your life.”

“This is the most tragic and heartbreaking event that can happen in a school district,” said Bobbi Mahler, superintendent of the small Centralia School District, which covers parts of Anaheim, Buena Park and La Palma.

She fought back tears as she spoke: “These children were doing what they were supposed to be doing. The car jumped the curb and ran into the building.”

Armando Curiel said he rushed from the Diamond Bar construction site where he was working to the hospital after a friend phoned him about the crash. By evening, the family had returned to their home, just a couple of blocks from the school.

He stood outside their home and spoke lovingly of his daughter, stopping often when overcome by grief. Her Christmas present, a purple Huffy bicycle, was parked nearby.

His daughter, with short black hair and big round cheeks, loved cooking scrambled eggs and studying. Though she moved to the United States from Mexico just over a year ago, she quickly picked up English.

“When she got to school, she spoke no English, but she learned really fast,” Curiel said. “She helped the other kids who didn’t speak English well with their homework.... We have a lot of dreams that have been halted by this accident. Her biggest dream was to go to Disneyland, and I never got to take her.”

Although there have been no other serious accidents at the school, several parents questioned the safety and design of the L-shaped drop-off zone, a small, two-lane area that they said is often congested, chaotic and inadequately monitored by school personnel.

“We’ve got a problem in this school and it is called traffic,” said Greta Dixon, 67, who was picking up her granddaughter Tuesday afternoon. “They don’t slow down for the kids.”

Parent Tammy Syphax, 42, agreed: “This driveway is not wide at all. It’s just frustrating. I’ve had a couple of arguments with parents double-parking. I think it is the only thing screwed up--this parking lot. This school is a very good school. This staff works really hard.”

Another parent, Claudia Hernandez, 31, said parents often drive too quickly through the lot, while others drive in the wrong direction when trying to maneuver around parked cars.

“There are always a lot of cars,” Hernandez said. “They come through both ways, and it is hard for them to come out.”

Mahler said the school has not received any specific traffic complaints but emphasized that children are constantly reminded to stay on the sidewalk and be careful not to dart out into traffic.

“We want parents to know that safety is and remains our No. 1 priority,” Mahler said.

“We talk about parking-lot procedures probably on a daily basis. I think we have to continue doing what we have been doing, which is educating people regarding safety.”

School officials said they plan to meet today to discuss ways to improve safety.

Traffic and close calls have been problems at many schools in Orange County, where overcrowding on campuses also means that school driveways are accommodating many more cars than they were designed to handle.

A similar accident occurred Jan. 30 at a private elementary school in Eagle Rock when a 65-year-old woman accidentally drove into a row of students waiting for their rides. Fifteen children and three teachers were injured, four of them severely.

Concerns about safety already had led Nidia’s family to forbid her from riding her new bike to school, despite her pleas that many other children were allowed to do so.

“I told her, ‘Because we don’t want you to have an accident or to get run over,’” her uncle Jaciel Lugo said.

Lugo comforted his sister, Sua Curiel, at the hospital Tuesday afternoon as she recalled her last conversation with her daughter. That morning, she had helped dress Nidia even though Nidia usually dressed herself. When they were done, Nidia said, “Thank you, Mom. God bless you.”

Her mother, surprised, replied, “God bless you too.” And when Nidia said goodbye for the day, she said, “Take care of yourself, Mom.”

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Contributing to this report were Times staff writers Mike Anton, Evan Halper, Christine Hanley, Scott Martelle and Dan Weikel.