BajaNomad

Authorities release driver after crash

BajaNews - 5-3-2006 at 12:32 AM

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/05/03/news/inland/escon...

ESCONDIDO ---- The Escondido driver of a car that was sideswiped and went over a cliff during the weekend in Mexico, killing two people, has been released by Mexican authorities, his daughter said Tuesday.

Sonia Venegas of Escondido, whose mother died in the Sunday accident in Ensenada, said her father, Jaime Venegas, 47, was on his way back Tuesday afternoon to the United States.

Jaime Venegas wasn't at fault, but he was detained by officials under Mexican law because two people died in the crash ---- his wife, Maria Lucia Venegas, 40, and a passenger, Kenny Escalante, 47, relatives said.

"All they needed was his declaration of what happened," plus the presence of attorneys and the forgiveness of the families involved to be released, Sonia Venegas said.

She said her father, married to her mother for 25 years this week, suffered severe bruising in the crash.

Escalante and his wife, Alicia Escalante, 48, also Escondido residents, were on a vacation trip to Mexico with Jaime and Maria Lucia Venegas, said Cindy Hatlestad of Escondido, Kenny Escalante's niece.

Hatlestad said Maria Escalante, injured in the crash, was taken earlier this week for surgery to Mercy Hospital in San Diego.