The mother of a five-year-old boy hit by a car while crossing a Vista intersection says her entire family is traumatized by the sudden death.
"My life is forever changed," the single mother told NBC 7.
Ivan Hernandez, 5, was struck while crossing the intersection at Bobier Drive in Vista on Friday.
His mother, Liliana Huaracha, said she was walking down the road that morning to get a haircut with her children.
"We were just going to get a haircut, across the street," she recalled.
The group was trying to cross the street. Her two older children were already across the street, and Huaracha was crossing the street with her 5-year-old, Ivan, and her 3-year-old.
The 3-year-old took off running for the flower bed nearby all of a sudden, Huaracha recalled. She chased after the toddler, leaving Ivan behind.
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When she looked back at Ivan, she remembers seeing him serene.
"He had no fear or nothing cross his mind, or something," Huaracha recalled.
The first thing she heard after that was her daughter's scream.
"She tells me, Ivan, mom," Huaracha said. "And I'm like, oh really?"
Her son was struck by a woman in a Honda CRV who stayed at the crash scene. An air ambulance transported the injured child to Rady's Children Hospital. He died shortly after.
"How it happened," the mother said. "We have to live with that."
"For a little angel, you know, he was 5-years-old," Huaracha recalled.
The intersection near her home has long been an accident waiting to happen, she said. Following her son's death, Huaracha said, she hopes the City will take steps to make the area safer, like splitting the street, adding more traffic lights, stop signs or speed bumps.
"There needs to (be) change, it needs to change as soon as possible," Huaracha said, visibly distraught.
She said her son's death has struck the entire family.
"It's traumatizing not just for me, not just my kids, other families who even saw, especially for the kids," she said.
To donate to the family through a GoFundMe page, click here.
