[sanjuro]

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/06/02/BAGS5Q6D5V1.DTL

REDWOOD CITY
Trial opens in freeway deaths of Tongan royals

John Coté, Chronicle Staff Writer

Saturday, June 2, 2007

A Redwood City teenager involved in a freeway crash that killed two members of the Tongan royal family and their driver last year had been told she had a bad habit of driving her Ford Mustang recklessly, a San Mateo County prosecutor said Friday.

"There had been warnings" for Edith Delgado before the July 5 crash on Highway 101 in Menlo Park, prosecutor Aaron Fitzgerald said in opening statements in Delgado's vehicular manslaughter trial. "There had been a written warning, there had been verbal warnings, and there had been speed in Miss Delgado's past."

Prosecutors say officials at Redwood High School, a continuation school that Delgado attended, told her she drove dangerously and even suspended her for it.

The school principal told Delgado a car was "a weapon" after she squealed her tires in the campus parking lot, Fitzgerald said.

Defense attorney Randy Moore, in his opening statement, countered that the principal could not recall ever meeting with Delgado, and said the warnings from school officials amount to general driving guidance, not rebukes.

Delgado, now 19, burst into tears in the Redwood City courtroom as Fitzgerald told the jury that the white Mustang with the loud exhaust system was "her pride and joy" and described how she had sped onto the freeway the night of the accident.

Authorities say Delgado weaved through traffic and appeared to be racing a Cadillac Escalade when the Mustang sideswiped a Ford Explorer carrying Tongan Prince Tu'ipelehake, 55, his wife, Princess Kaimana Aleamotu'a Tuku'aho, 46, and their driver, East Palo Alto resident Vinisia Hefa, 36.

The collision caused the Explorer to flip, killing all three people inside. Delgado was unhurt.

Authorities initially said Delgado was speeding between 85 and 100 mph, but in his opening statement Fitzgerald said a crash expert couldn't give an exact speed. All he knows for sure, he said, is that Delgado was going considerably faster than the Explorer.

Moore said Delgado had been on her way to visit a friend in the hospital and had not been racing. He didn't dispute that Delgado had struck the Explorer, but said it was an accident.

"The issue here is not whether Edith hit that car," Moore said. "The issue is whether what this teenage girl, Edith Delgado, did that night is gross negligence."

Jurors must conclude that Delgado's actions constituted gross negligence to find her guilty of the three counts of vehicular manslaughter she faces.

 

[V-Dub GTI]

They should learn to eather not give fast cars and/or drivers lisences to young girls.

 

[V-Dub GTI]

paging UkJason, to the politics and world news section please. UkJason, to the politics and world news section please

 

[valve bouncer]

Moore said Delgado had been on her way to visit a friend in the hospital and had not been racing. He didn't dispute that Delgado had struck the Explorer, but said it was an accident.

This kind of thinking sh*ts me. Other than black ice/meteorites/earthquakes opening gaping chasms in the road, accidents don't just happen. It's almost always because some f*ckwit is driving with their head firmly lodged in their rectal area as appears to be the case here.

 

[ukjason]

paging UkJason, to the politics and world news section please. UkJason, to the politics and world news section please

bastard

 

[$tinkle]

too bad it wasn't "life imitates aeon flux". i like those stories. just had one here last week. chick driving 2 a.m. in her white conv bmw, failed to negotiate a curve.

one shot; one kill.