On The Way To Have A Baby, Menifee Father Killed In Hit-And-Run Crash
MENIFEE (CBSLA) — Giving birth to a healthy baby girl has been bittersweet for one Menifee mom, whose husband was killed in a hit-and-run crash as they hurried to the hospital when she began having contractions.
"She looks just like him and I hate that he can't see it," Alyssa Sandoval said, holding 2-day-old Daisy Ricky Sandoval.
Ricky Sandoval, 22, was driving the mom-to-be to the hospital along Highway 74 early Monday morning after she started having contractions. When they got to Menifee Road, a Toyota truck slammed into them, flipping them into a ditch.
Alyssa Sandoval says she dangled in the car, with the seatbelt locked across her stomach, for what felt like 30 minutes. By the time first responders arrived, badly injured Ricky had died, holding hands with his pregnant wife as he took his final breaths.
The truck driver and a male passenger ran from the crash, leaving two injured teenage girls inside the truck, according to police. Detectives are still searching for those suspects.
"It's crazy to think that someone could just not care," Alyssa Sandoval said.
Little Daisy Ricky was delivered by emergency C-section that night. Baby and mother, who still has stitches across her forehead, are recovering in the hospital before they go home, where Daisy Ricky's twin sisters are waiting.
Even as she holds her beautiful little girl, Alyssa Sandoval finds it hard to muster a smile after having lost her husband just as they were getting ready to welcome a new baby into the world.
"I'm just so glad I got the chance to be with someone as amazing as him, and have a little family," she said.
Friends of the family have set up a GoFundMe page in honor of Ricky Sandoval.
