The San Diego Times reports that a 33-year-old Vista mother has been arrested on multiple felony charges, including DUI and vehicular manslaughter, after a freeway crash that killed her two children.
According to statements issued by the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department and the California Highway Patrol, the incident occurred on Sunday, at approximately 6:10 p.m., in the eastbound lanes of State Route 78 in Vista, located in the Carlsbad San Diego metropolitan area.
Sandra Oritz, 33, of Vista, pulled her vehicle over onto the right shoulder of the road for unknown reasons near Mar Vista Drive. Shortly after stopping, two of Oritz’s children, a 10-year-old boy 10 and a 16-year-old girl, got out of the vehicle and stepped into the path of an oncoming white Nissan Sentra.
Both children reportedly died at the scene.
Investigators believe that the children had been instructed by their mother to secure pieces of luggage that had come loose from the vehicle’s roof.
Oritz’s four additional children, who were also in the vehicle then, were uninjured in the crash.
The unidentified driver of the Nissan suffered minor injuries but was reportedly severely traumatized by the incident.
Oritz was booked at the scene on multiple felony counts, including driving under the influence of alcohol, vehicular manslaughter, and child endangerment.
Authorities said Oritz is being held at the Las Colinas women’s jail in Santee on a $500,000 bond. Oritz is scheduled to be arraigned on Thursday, June 22.
