San Mateo County prosecutors have charged Edith Delgado, a Redwood City woman, with three counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence in connection with a July 5 accident on U.S. 101 in Menlo Park that killed three people, including a visiting prince and princess from the nation of Tonga.
Ms. Delgado, 18, pleaded not guilty to the charges at an arraignment hearing July 7 before Judge Thomas Smith of the San Mateo County Superior Court, who set bail at $3 million, said Deputy District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe.
Ms. Delgado is alleged to have caused the accident after her Ford Mustang struck a 1998 Ford Explorer that then rolled over several times. The victims were a Tongan royal couple — Prince Tu’ipelehake, 54, and Princess Kaimana Tu’ipelehake, 45 — and the driver, East Palo Alto resident Vinisia Hefa.
The Tongan community throughout the Bay Area mourned the loss of the prince and princess. Tongan Princess Mele Siu’ilikutapu attended a memorial gathering in East Palo Alto Friday night.
“We will continue on,” said Viliami Teu, a senior pastor at the Tongan Christian Assembly of God in East Palo Alto.
Pastor Teu said the prince and princess were beloved and visiting the Bay Area’s sizable Tongan communities to promote democratic reform in their home country.
The accident occurred on Bayshore Freeway at about 9 p.m. July 5 north of the Willow Road exit in Menlo Park, the California Highway Patrol reported. Two northbound lanes of the freeway were closed for about two hours.
Ms. Delgado’s next court appearance is set for 9 a.m. Thursday, July 13, when her defense attorney is expected to file a motion to reduce bail, Mr. Wagstaffe said. She is unlikely to make bail unless it is lowered, he added.
If convicted, she could be imprisoned for up to eight years, or longer if prosecutors prove she was racing with another vehicle at the time of the accident, Mr. Wagstaffe said.
The CHP reported that witnesses saw her racing, but Mr. Wagstaffe noted that “there is no evidence of alcohol or drugs (and) no evidence of a speed contest.”
If there was a race, the other vehicle may have been a black Cadillac Escalade that exited the freeway at Marsh Road, said CHP Officer Ricky Franklin.
Ms. Delgado has a clean driving record and received her driver’s license in February, Officer Franklin said.
Anyone with information is asked to call CHP officers Pohrman or Franklin at 369-6261.
Seat belts were on
All three victims in the Explorer were wearing seat belts, said Deputy Chief Harold Schapelhouman of the Menlo Park Fire Protection District, who was among the first to arrive on the scene.The Explorer, he said, was hit from behind, rolled over “several times,” then apparently got snagged by the front end and “catapulted … into the air, after which it landed on its roof.”
The collapsing roof probably killed the passengers in the back seat, he said. The driver probably died after being halfway ejected out of the driver’s side window, then crushed after the overturning vehicle came to rest partially on top of her, Mr. Schapelhouman said.
To reach the passengers, firefighters had to cut away the vehicle’s rear door and the pillar between the front and back seats, he said.
“At first, we thought the people in the backseat were salvageable,” he said. “They were quickly evaluated and both were deceased from significant head trauma from the rolling of the vehicle and having it land on its roof after being catapulted into the air.”
“Side airbags don’t always work in a rollover and there are no protective devices built into the roof of your car,” he said.
— Bay City News contributed to this report.
