NBC Los Angeles reported on Tuesday that a teen boy set to graduate from high school in the coming days would likely lose toes on both feet after a DUI crash on Friday night.
The teen and two friends were enjoying a night on the town. The three friends were standing beside a parked pickup truck near Valley Boulevard and Basetdale Avenue when a Toyota sedan slammed into the back of the pickup truck. According to doctors, all three sustained injuries, but one teen was more severely injured, suffering a broken leg and is likely to lose several toes.
An ambulance transported the young man to Los Angeles County + USC Medical Center, where he remains hospitalized.
They have identified the driver of the Toyota as Jesus Ziranda. California Highway Patrol officers responding to the scene conducted a series of field sobriety tests which Ziranda failed. He was arrested on suspicion of DUI and taken into custody.
Records obtained from the jail show that Ziranda was later released on $100,000 later that same weekend.
Understandably, the family of the injured Baset Valley teen is furious and is demanding justice.
“That person needs to pay for what he did to my kid,” his mother said.
“He was going to go to college, play soccer; like there were a lot of dreams that he had,” his stepfather added.
While the young man may never get to play soccer the way he might have had the incident never happen, the good news is that doctors say the boy will walk again.
However, according to his mother, the most heartbreaking thing is what he told her after the crash.
“I’m not going to have toes no more,” he told his mother. “I’m not going to have friends no more.”
Jesus Ziranda could not be reached for comment.
