Pabla was out for a jog when she was killed.
By The American Bazaar Staff
WASHINGTON, DC: An Indian American woman, Kiran Pabla, 24, of San Jose, California, was killed on Monday when she was out for a jog, and got crushed to death a mile from her house by two cars who were allegedly racing each other and lost control.
Pabla graduated from Silver Creek High School in San Jose and had been pursuing a degree in business at California State University East Bay in Hayward.
Friends, family and strangers are mourning her loss, reported NBC Bay Area. Pabla’s brother was too distraught to speak to NBC on Tuesday morning, the day after she was killed on Yerba Buena Road near Edenwood Drive.
He was visibly upset, however, and pointed to a metal guardrail on the road, wishing it had been built differently, so that it could have protected his sister from being sandwiched between a BMW and Nissan Altima, both traveling faster than 70 mph, arounbd noon on Monday, police said.
Sgt. Heather Randol said the two cars were likely involved in a street race, and killed Pabla as she was jogging on the sidewalk or in the bike lane. She was pinned between one of the cars and a tree, police said, when they lost control and hit a guardrail.
Mayor Sam Liccardo took the opportunity to put out a call for more police officers, reported NBC, saying “there’s more we can do to combat street racing. We know it will take more police officers.”
Gabriel Bacerra Esparza, 18, and Manual Maldonado-Avalos, 23, were arrested on Monday after the fatal crash. The two were being held without bail on charges of vehicular manslaughter and reckless driving causing great bodily injury. Both are San Jose residents.
The San Jose Mercury News reported that there have been two South Bay cases in recent years where street racers were prosecuted for a death: a San Jose case in 2009 where the two drivers were given maximum prison sentences, and a Santa Clara death in 2011 where the drivers got about a year in county jail.
Laurie Weckesser, a veteran Silver Creek teacher who had Pabla as a student for three years in AVID, a college-prep elective course, remembered her as “a passionate kid, and she was seriously loyal to the people that she loved,” the News report said.
Weckesser said: “Such a good person. She’s one of those kids you don’t forget.”
Lately, the Pabla family was weathering difficult times, with Kiran’s mother battling breast cancer. Her father died more than a decade ago, and alongside her two older brothers, Pabla kept up the household while studying toward a business degree.
ABC reported a steady stream of mourners has been coming to lay flowers to remember Kiran Pabla. But the kind of speeding along Yerba Buena Road that took her life continues as though tragedy had never happened there.
The extended Pabla family is in shock and in mourning, reported ABC. She worked at a staffing agency. Her family was looking forward to celebrating her 25th birthday next month.
“I’ve had almost 150 people here over the past couple of hours to show their respects,” said the victim’s brother, Aman Pabla. “She was a very well-known person in this community. People loved her, people loved her smile, she was a joyful person. She didn’t deserve this at all.”