thebajarunner - 10-20-2005 at 08:09 AM
Scary story,
just some of our local kids, out for a good time, trying to do the right thing...
Sad!!
Modbee.com
Davis High grad dies in border car wreck
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By CHRISTINA SALERNO
BEE STAFF WRITER
A 21-year-old Davis High School graduate died in Mexico after a taxi he was riding in struck a horse on a highway.
Patrick Riner, who moved from Modesto to San Diego in September, was headed to the Mexican beach town of Rosarito on Saturday for a night out with
four friends visiting from Modesto and his girlfriend, Tam-ara Mena-Perez, a 2003 Davis High graduate.
Mena-Perez was injured in the accident and is at UC San Diego Medical Center, where a nurse listed her in fair condition. The other four escaped
serious injury.
The accident occurred around 9:30 p.m. after the six friends drove from San Diego to the Mexican border and then walked into Tijuana, where they paid
$30 to take a 15-mile taxi ride from Tijuana to Rosarito, said April Valdez, a passenger in the car.
"We heard the clubs and bars down there were fun," said Valdez. "We were trying to be responsible and take a taxi so no one drove."
The taxi was going down a dark, two-lane highway at about 80 mph, Valdez said, while Spanish house music played on the radio. The driver switched on
the high beams because the regular headlights weren't working, she said.
It was so dark that nobody saw a horse standing in the middle of the road until it was too late. The horse hit the windshield on the driver's side of
the taxi then flipped onto the top of the car, crushing the roof and spinning the car around, Valdez said.
Riner and the taxi driver both died at the scene, she said. Mena-Perez, who was sitting next to Riner in the back seat behind the driver, suffered a
broken back, cracked cranium, broken sternum and a broken arm, Valdez said.
Police in Rosarito confirmed that the accident took place and referred questions to an information officer, who could not be reached for comment
Wednesday night.
Valdez said she was incredibly frustrated at the slow response of the ambulance and lack of cooperation from the Mexican police.
She said it was 20 minutes before paramedics arrived at the scene, and police gave them the runaround about where they were supposed to go.
They had no cell phone service and were unable to contact fam-ily members immediately, she said.
"It is a whole different world down there," Valdez said. "People need to know to be careful."
Valdez, Juan Saenz, 20, Nick Holmes, 21, and Steve Manyen, 21, were not injured but said the incident left them shocked and in disbelief.
The four longtime friends sat together in a darkened living room Wednesday afternoon in Modesto, poring over photos and wiping back tears as they
remembered Riner. He was very outgoing and loved anything to do with the outdoors, they said.
He was also an avid athlete, and was a member of the basketball and soccer teams at Davis High.
Riner would often go snowboarding, wakeboarding, cliff jumping or camping, Saenz said.
Snowboarding was his passion, and Riner's prized possession was a banner signed by several professional snowboarders. It hung on his bedroom wall
alongside a picture collage made last year by Mena-Perez for their two-year anniversary. The collage is labeled "the best 2 years," and is made up of
several pictures of the smiling couple.
The two had been dating for three years, since high school, Saenz said. Riner graduated in 2002.
Riner and Mena-Perez transferred from Modesto Junior College to attend San Diego State University, Saenz said.
He described Mena-Perez as Riner's "twin" because they were both outgoing and shared several interests. They were inseparable, Saenz said.
"They wanted to enjoy life right now, but they would have gotten married," he said.
Nick Holmes, 21, said Riner would do anything to help a friend.
"If anyone of us were down, he was there for you," Holmes said.
Riner always had a project ? from fixing a fish pond to making homemade Japanese sake ? to keep him busy, Holmes said.
Riner wanted to be a sports doctor and had been living with his mother in Modesto before moving to San Diego, Saenz said.
"There wasn't one person who knew him that didn't like him," he said. "He was such a great guy ... it's been really hard to deal with this."
Anonymous - 10-20-2005 at 07:36 PM
Man; does that suck.
I am so sorry to hear about that.
Slow down, folks. Force = Velocity squared
Twice as fast means you hit FOUR TIMES as hard.
Spyderman - 10-26-2005 at 01:56 PM
bad news
David K - 10-26-2005 at 05:33 PM
"...The taxi was going down a dark, two-lane highway at about 80 mph,..."
Where are one of these between Tijuana and Rosarito? I took the free road south from Tijuana, at night a couple weeks ago, and it is four lanes, and
illuminated most of the way with street lights and lot's of traffic.
Very sad what happened regardless... and they opted to use a taxi for safety, too!