A hit-and-run crash killed a father as he was driving his pregnant wife to the hospital to give birth to the couple's third child in Menifee Monday. Soon after, a baby girl was born without a father, and the family is devastated and desperate for justice.
Ricky Sandoval, 22, of Hemet lost his life in the crash, and his 23-year-old wife, Alyssa, was taken from the scene of the crash to a nearby hospital. Soon after, a baby girl entered the world as a fatherless child.
"It's like a nightmare for me," Norma Sandoval, Ricky's mother says. "I wish I just woke up and I was living in a dream."
The family of the victim, understandably, is distraught that a moment of joy has turned into incomprehensible grief.
Riverside County Sheriff's investigators say that the couple was driving west on Highway 74 towards the hospital early Monday morning when their Lexus was struck by a Toyota truck traveling north on Menifee Road.
Deputies say the driver of the truck and a passenger ran from the scene of the crash, but two girls, 15 and 17, were left behind injured inside the truck.
"Maybe they could have saved him," Gabriel Sandoval, Ricky's father, wonders as he attempts to understand what type of people would leave injured people and run away.
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The grieving father considers the possibility of the truck exploding with the two injured girls left behind.
Ricky's car ended up in a ditch upside down, and sadly, he didn't survive. Alyssa was badly injured and was hanging by her seat belt until paramedics rescued her and took the pregnant wife to the hospital. There, the new widow gave birth to Daisy Ricky, named in memory of her recently deceased father.
"What's going to hurt me the most is seeing my granddaughters without a dad and seeing my daughter-in-law without a husband," Norma Sandoval says as she weeps.
Investigators are not saying whether they know the identity of the driver and simply cannot locate the driver, but they are asking any witnesses or anyone with information to come forward and help a family find justice.
The family has set up a GoFundMe. If you would like to donate to a GoFundMe, you may do so here. Note that GoFundMe deducts a percentage of all funds raised in the form of platform and payment processing charges.
