A woman who allegedly walked away from a crash in California that left a father dead was arrested in Mexico, according to officials.
The Los Angeles Police Department tweeted on Aug. 25 that Maritza Joana Lara, 27, was taken into custody in Mexico after leaving the United States following the crash on Father’s Day in June.
She was booked on Aug. 17 in a Los Angeles County jail and is being held on more than $2 million bond, the report noted.
Other than the death of Rivas, Lara’s four passengers were critically injured in the accident. The surviving victims were reported to be in stable condition, KTLA reported.
In surveillance footage reviewed by the broadcaster, Lara was seen exiting the Lexus before opening one of the back passenger doors. Then she walked away.
The footage also showed several empty beer cans inside the Lexus. The crash took place at around 5 a.m. local time.
Crash Deaths in the United States
Tens of thousands of people are killed and millions injured each year from motor vehicle crashes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The CDC says these deaths cost more than $380 million in direct medical costs.The major risk factors for crash deaths in the United States are not using seat belts, car seats, and booster seats (factors in over 9,500 crash deaths); drunk driving (a factor in more than 10,000 crash deaths); and speeding (contributing to more than 9,500 crash deaths).
Facts About Crime in the United States
Violent crime in the United States has fallen sharply over the past 25 years, according to both the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) and the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) (pdf).While the overall rate of violent crime has seen a steady downward drop since its peak in the 1990s, there have been several upticks that bucked the trend.
Between 2014 and 2016, the murder rate increased by more than 20 percent, to 5.4 per 100,000 residents, from 4.4, according to an Epoch Times analysis of FBI data. The last two-year period that the rate soared so quickly was between 1966 and 1968.
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