Family of Cloverdale teen files claim over response to fatal street-racing accident

The family of a Cloverdale teen who was struck and killed by an out-of-control car in a street race has filed claims against the city and CHP alleging they failed to conduct a thorough investigation and as a result, her body lay nearby before being spotted by a passing cyclist the next morning.

The parents of Angelica Contreras, 16, said officers failed to discover that she was among the crowd of teenagers at the accident scene last June when one of the racing cars lost control and struck her. Furthermore, they said, the officers should have found her that night, after she was thrown up to ?150 feet from the point of impact, on East First Street Bridge over the Russian River.

The claim by Federico and Silvia Contreras stated that it was unknown if their daughter died from her injuries prior to the arrival of emergency responders, but suggested that if she were alive “she could have been saved had she been discovered.”

Melinda Guzman, the Sacramento attorney representing the family, said Tuesday that officers investigating a traffic accident typically walk the area to identify where pieces of auto parts may have landed, but apparently did not do that, or the girl would have been found.

“She was within feet of where this accident occurred,” Guzman said in an interview. “Of course it was nighttime and it would have been dark.” But she added that officers have flashlights.

Contreras’ body was found below the bridge and near the Russian River.

City Manager Paul Cayler echoed Tuesday what CHP officials and other emergency responders said in the aftermath of the crash: They asked teenagers present at the scene if anyone was missing.

“No one came forward and said their friend was ?missing,” Cayler said. “The assumption by the young people was she had taken off and gone home.”

In a routine move last week, the Cloverdale City Council rejected the claim filed by the Contreras family, which seeks unspecified damages.

A similar claim has been filed against the CHP, the lead agency in the investigation into the June 5 crash, which occurred just outside city limits but also drew emergency response from the Cloverdale Fire Protection District and the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office.

CHP spokesman Jon Sloat said Tuesday, “if somebody said ‘so and so was here before the collision’ and was not there, we would have been searching.”

He said if a crash appears to be a non-injury, as the accident did originally, “you don’t kick through the weeds in case there’s a bumper.” “If everybody’s accounted for and they think they know the perimeter of the crash scene,” that’s where officers look, he said.

Contreras, who was going into her senior year at Cloverdale High School, was with a group of eight teenagers who went to Crocker Road just east of town to watch two boys, aged 16 and 17 race their cars.

As they approached the bridge over the Russian River, one of the racing cars, a Volkswagen Beetle, lost control and spun out. The car smashed into a concrete retaining wall, where the girl was apparently sitting, Sloat said. The impact threw her over the side and down the embankment, a distance the CHP said was about 150 feet. The family’s claim gave the distance as 50 feet.

Claims are typically filed prior to a lawsuit, but Guzman said it isn’t certain whether her clients will pursue a civil case.

“They want to know how their daughter died and why anyone left her there,” she said. “A civil suit is not a priority.”

Authorities said the girls with Contreras apparently did not notice she was missing in the chaos of the collision.

According to Sloat, some of the teenagers said they thought Contreras left the scene to avoid getting into trouble because of the street race.

Guzman said she has not received the CHP’s investigative report into the accident, but will petition a judge for a copy to obtain more details about the tragedy.

The report is expected to include autopsy findings that might shed light on whether the teenager died instantly when she was struck by the speeding vehicle.

Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Cecile Focha said that according to the coroner’s office, the girl died as result of blunt force injuries to the head and neck, due to the vehicle impact. But she was unable to say whether the findings shed light on how long after the accident the teen died.

The family “are completely devastated by this loss,” Guzman said. “The biggest problem is there are so many unanswered questions. It makes everyday living very difficult for them.”