There were other casualties from Thursday’s wreck who may have narrowly escaped death. An SUV driven by Grace Ortiz was one of the vehicles involved. The woman was driving with six children that afternoon when she passed through a green light at the Windsor Hills intersection. Linton’s Mercedes Benz slammed into the rear passenger side quarter-panel of Ortiz’s SUV, sending it spinning around several times. According to Ortiz (above), “It turned us around and as it was turning us around we see a big flame. I just can’t believe we are alive.”
The accident could have been fatal for Ortiz and the children on board her vehicle. Regardless of her relief about narrowly escaping what could have been an untimely death, Ortiz is understandably shaken at what she and others witnessed. She told NBC News 4 Los Angeles that her children were “screaming, crying. They were screaming, ‘The baby, the baby!’ I didn’t want to turn around because I thought it was going to be my baby.”
The baby turned out to be 11-month-old Alonzo Quintero, who had been ejected from the vehicle of his mother, Asherey Ryan. Ortiz and the children riding with her were lucky to only escape with minor injuries.
