Two children are without their mother this holiday season after an SUV overturned in Julian on Christmas Eve, leaving two women dead, California Highway Patrol (CHP) officials confirmed.
Driver Rosario Garcia Ibarra, 38, and passenger Christine Loraine Wagner, 47, were driving south on the Great Southern Overland Stage Route around 10:30 a.m. in east rural San Diego County when they lost control of the SUV while attempting to negotiate a puddle, officers said. The car flipped.
As Ibarra was driving, she careened on and off the road through standing puddles of rain water before veering out of control, said CHP officers. She was ejected from the vehicle in the crash, and the car came to rest on top of her body.
The two women were critically injured in the collision and pronounced dead at the scene. Both women lived in Escondido.
Wagner's family has set up a GoFundMe page to pay for funeral expenses as well as mortgage bills and living expenses for her children. One of Wagner's daughters and her daughter's grandfather were also killed in a couple separate accidents in the past few years, her family told NBC 7 San Diego.
Tabitha Wagner, the victim's daughter, was killed in a car accident at age 24 near the Del Mar Horse Park on April 16, 2015, and the daughter's grandfather died in another fatal crash a few days later.
The two children in the backseat of the crash flagged down a passerby, who alerted the authorities.
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The driver's children, an 8-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl, had minor injuries from crash. CHP officers said they were taken to Rady Children's Hospital for medical evaluations.
Alcohol was not considered a factor in the rollover crash, and it was unclear how fast the vehicle was driving.
The investigation is ongoing.
