the mother of one man hit by truck of the City of Los Angeles, has retained an attorney to file a lawsuit.
David Isaac Soto passed away on January 25, and the circumstances of his death left the family with many questions.
The 35-year-old was hit by a City of Los Angeles garbage collection truck.
At least one of the many cadets who were hit by a driver in Whittier is now in serious condition. And for the first time, alleged driver Nicholas Gutiérrez spoke in front of our cameras.
“It shouldn’t have happened,” said her mother, Sara Toral. “He should be here with us, he had a future.”
In the early morning of January 25, a security camera captured him, apparently under the influence of alcohol or drugs, outside a friend’s apartment.
But it was in an alley between Noble Street and Burbank Boulevard in Sherman Oaks where locals saw him and where he lost his life. When his mother asked to see her son, they told her it would not be possible until the investigation was completed.
“(They said) I was unrecognizable, my son was unrecognizable,” Toral said tearfully.
At first, Soto was described as homeless, but his mother says that was not the case. She claims that her son lived in San Fernando with an aunt, but suffered from drug addiction and when he used it, he distanced himself from the family.
The victim’s family and neighbors cannot explain why the truck driver did not see him when he backed up. The vehicles are equipped with large mirrors and 5 cameras, including one pointing forwards and one pointing backwards for safer reversing.
The family of a motorist killed in a hit-and-run in Sylmar spoke out Tuesday night as authorities continue to search for the man responsible.
“He wasn’t even lying down,” said his grandfather Adan Jáquez. “He was as if he had stayed up all night and was sitting or kneeling, enjoying the warmth of the sun.”
The attorney, Robert Brennan, thinks the truck driver just wasn’t paying attention. He stressed that he shouldn’t have driven over anything on the road without first checking what it is.
There are witnesses who say it didn’t look like a pile of blankets, that the man was sitting.
Authorities continue to investigate the cause of a crash that injured more than 20 Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department cadets.
Police say on the day of the crash they took testimony from two neighbors and conducted a sobriety test on the driver, which came back negative and they had no plans for criminal charges against him.
Meanwhile, visits to the altar erected in the place in honor of Soto help to heal, little by little, the deep wound of having lost a son.
“A part of me died with him,” his mother said, crying. “I can’t explain it. It’s something very ugly to feel. I have no words”.
NBC 52 has contacted the City of Los Angeles cleanup service. However, via email, they informed that they could not comment on the pending legal actions.