A WOMAN is dead after falling out of a party bus on a Los Angeles highway, according to California Highway Patrol.
She has been identified as Heather Garcia, a mother of five, who was celebrating her niece’s birthday.
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Garcia fell from the bus around 3am Saturday while it was traveling northbound on the 101.
Member’s of Garcia’s family said the woman was dancing when she tripped and fell back on the door. The door had then opened, sending Garcia out onto the freeway.
According to CHP, Garcia was struck and killed by a vehicle in the third lane. Both drivers of that vehicle and the party bus stayed at the scene to speak with authorities.
“It’s just something that is a nightmare,” said Garcia’s husband Rafael Corral. “That doesn’t happen. It should not happen.”
Corral described Garcia as the love of his life and the mother of their young children. She was only days away from celebrating her 30th birthday on January 31.
“You expect when you pay for a service so that you don’t drink and drive or do anything illegal…you get there, somebody takes you there safe, and you’re going to get back home safe because that’s what you paid the service for,” he said.
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Now, the family is learning how to cope with the tragic loss.
“She was a great soul, and she was somebody that you can count on,” said Jellue Jaramillo, Garcia’s sister. “A great mother… definitely a great sister.”
A GoFundMe has been created by Garcia’s family to help her children.
“I need help to give her the burial that she deserves as I was not prepared for a loss in such a tragic way,” wrote her husband.
“I am also left with so many other expenses and I will now be a mom and dad to our five children.” Their children are between ages 10 to one.
According to CHP, the woman was struck and killed by a vehicle in the third lane. Both drivers of that vehicle and the party bus stayed at the scene to speak with authorities.
The CHP’s Central Los Angeles office is asking anyone with information about the death to contact them.
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