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Racing alleged in fatal collision
| Monday, Mar 6 2006 10:55 PM
Last Updated: Monday, Mar 6 2006 10:59 PM
Californian staff writer
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Dorothy Anne Walter saw the movie "Walk the Line" at her grandson's home Sunday, on the last night of her life.
Barrett Rankins remembered his grandmother as a fun person with a great sense of humor.
He heard emergency workers rushing to the scene at Stockdale Highway and Buena Vista Road, where she died in a car crash Sunday night.
She was less than a mile from Rankins' home.
"She just left my house and I was laying in my room and I heard sirens," he said Monday. "We went looking for her."
Walter, 69, was killed in a head-on collision caused by the driver of a 2006 Ford Mustang who witnesses said was racing, the Kern County coroner's staff reported.
Witnesses said the Mustang's driver -- identified as Daniel K. Espinoza, 22, of Bakersfield -- lost control after racing other vehicles, according to coroner's officials.
The Bakersfield Police Department was still investigating Monday whether Espinoza was racing.
Walter was driving a 1992 Dodge Spirit east on Stockdale Highway at 9:54 p.m. when Espinoza, driving the Mustang west, veered into her lane. The cars crashed west of Buena Vista Road, Bakersfield police and the coroner's office said.
Walter was pinned in her car.
Espinoza was taken to Kern Medical Center where he was listed in critical condition Monday night, the nursing staff reported.
Alcohol and drugs did not appear to be a factor, but speed was, police said. Espinoza's family could not be reached.
-- Staff writer Steve Swenson contributed to this report