ANTELOPE VALLEY – A 9-year-old girl was able to crawl out of a wrecked SUV and hike through difficult terrain in an attempt to find help for her father, after their vehicle tumbled down a dirt embankment early Sunday morning, authorities said.
Alcohol is suspected to have played a role in the single-vehicle collision, which occurred some time before 2:30 a.m. Sunday on Sierra Highway, north of Soledad Canyon road, according to a California Highway Patrol report.
Alejandro Renteria, 35, was driving a 2010 Ford Escape southbound on Sierra Highway, at an unknown speed, when the vehicle veered off the roadway and rolled numerous times as it tumbled down a dirt embankment, the CHP report states.
Renteria died at the scene of injuries sustained in the collision, according to the CHP report.
His 9-year-old daughter crawled out of the vehicle and hiked through difficult terrain to a nearby home for help, but no one answered the door, the report states.
The girl hiked up a steep embankment in a very dark and threatening environment to the road, where she was finally successful in flagging down a passing motorist, the report states.
CHP was dispatched to the traffic collision around 2:34 a.m., with the Fire Department responding on Sierra Highway, north of Soledad Canyon road. The girl gave a statement to CHP officers and was transported to the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles with minor injuries.
Father and daughter were Los Angeles residents. The incident remains under investigation.
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Ben K says
Glad it was him and not her. That isn’t usually the case.
sikntired says
What a brave, resourceful child.There should be a scholarship on the horizon for this little one.
frank says
We need to pray for this little who has suffered such a tragedy over a stupid mistake someone made ,now she will live with this forever .poor lil innocent girl ,Lord please help her .
Martha says
How sad how are you gonna be driving your kid while you’re drunk?? It’s bad enough driving period but don’t put innocent children in those situations when they can’t do anything about it. Poor girl. God bless!!
JM says
There’s nothing saying that he was drunk. Because it was a single car accident they are assuming that alcohol could have been a factor but they can’t confirm anything until toxicology tests come back. The media shouldn’t even report anything like that until given proof that that’s the case. But there is no proof here until they receive the results of the tests. And if it does come back that alcohol was the cause, well then shame on the family for letting him leave the family gathering with his daughter under influence and at such a late hour. (Yes they were at a family gathering, this story here lacks a lot of details). If it comes back that alcohol was not the cause then shame on everyone for pointing the finger at this little girl’s father making him out to be the bad the bad guy. What if some kind of animal jumped out and he swerved to miss it? There could be many reasons as to why this happened but let’s not point the shame finger for the girl’s sake. Let her remember him as the good loving father as he was in her eyes.
friend says
Thank you for posting this comment. I was a friend of his and know just how dedicated he was to his daughter and how conscientious he was in providing her with a good home and parenting. The fact that she handled that situation the way she did speaks in part to how she was raised by him. I can say with certainty that he probably took her along to the family party because he didn’t want to leave her at home while he was away (even though he had a family member to watch her at home) because he did not like leaving her to go out, even if she was asleep, for fear she’d wake up while he was out, even if he was gone for an errand. He worked 7 days a week as a single father, so he treasured the time he had with her and probably wanted her to be able to see family at the gathering, too.
I’ve been bothered by the same issue with the reporting on this– there is no proof yet that he was under the influence when the accident happened. Yes, it’s possible, but we don’t know that yet. Even if he was drinking at the family party, it could have been a small amount hours before and already out of his system by the time he drove. I agree the people at the party should not have let him drive; I was in a similar situation as a little girl with a drunk parent on a holiday and to this day, still don’t understand how our friends let us out the door! We were only lucky. If Alex wasn’t under the influence, you are right– it could have been any number of causes (animal running across the road, as you said… or being sleepy or distracted for a moment, he was going a little too fast and missed the curve in the darkness, the road was slick… he also had sustained a back injury recently from his weekend job and had sciatic nerve pain as a result, which caused extremely painful/sudden shooting pains, so he could have had a horrible back spasm that distracted him for a moment.)
His daughter Celia is the one who survives this, and someday when she is older, she may read what people say about her father. He was a good hearted man, hard working, and he centered his life around his daughter and they had a very close bond. Everyone who knew him knew how important she was to him. That is what she should be encouraged to remember, and know about her father as she grows up now without him– just how much he loved her. She knows the man her father was, so let’s not challenge that. He was a good man.
jenell lee says
God bless that little girl i will keep her in my prayers