Parents of Pollock Pines children hit by van furious over DA’s decision to not file charges
(FOX40.COM) — In the quiet, rural Sierra Nevada foothills community of Pollock Pines, four children, enrolled at Pine Top Montessori preschool, were on a walk with their teachers and other classmates on May 31, 2023, when they were hit by a van.
Months after the crash, three families who are now speaking to the media for the first time are asking why nobody will face criminal charges.
“We all dropped off our kids that morning thinking they were going to have a safe, normal, happy day,” said Chelsea Ojeda, Axel Skike’s mom.
It was a Wednesday morning around 10:30 a.m., when two teachers from Pine Top Montessori preschool took 19 children & a dog on a walk along Pony Express Trail, headed to a playground at Pollock Pines Community Church.
The church is about a half mile walk from the school.
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“We had no idea our kids we’re going on walks,” said Catie Ammons, Juniper Ammons’ mom. “We never signed anything, we never agreed to anything, any of us had shown up to pick up our kid early the other have no idea why they weren’t at school.”
The group had to cross Pony Express Trail to get to the playground.
According to a report from El Dorado County District Attorney’s Office, at about 10:40 a.m. the group approached the crosswalk between the 50 Grand Restaurant & Bar and Burger Barn.
The lead teacher at the front of the group allegedly stopped at the crosswalk, looked back at the children and after a short pause, continued into the crosswalk. The students and dog, following close behind.
At the same time, a 21-year-old man driving a white cargo van at about 37 mph was quickly approaching the crosswalk. The posted speed limit is 35 mph.
The DA’s report says, for unknown reasons, the driver of the van did not see the students crossing the road.
A separate, California Highway Patrol report, said the driver told officers he thought he might have been looking down at his GPS, then when he looked back up he saw the kids and hit the brakes.
But it was too late, the van hit four of the children.
“We got a phone call from her teacher saying that they were going for a walk and some of the kids were in the crosswalk and were hit by a car and Juniper is one of them,” said Catie Ammons. “We immediately just asked where they were and drove down.”
“My mom called and she goes, ‘you need to get here now,’” Jerry Dunlap said. “JC’s shoes are in the middle of the road and I can’t find him.”
Some people nearby who saw or heard the crash rushed to help the injured children right away.
The driver also got out of the van to help the kids he just hit.
The hectic scene was overwhelming for the parents who arrived as soon as they could.
“We got there and there’s like a bus blocking the street and there’s cars and people everywhere,” said Trevor Ammons, Juniper Ammons’ Dad. “So we had to park down the road… and I just started running behind her (Catie) with the infant carrier and we didn’t know where Juniper was, we didn’t really know any of the people on the scene and the police and the first responders there they couldn’t really tell us much and finally I saw her shoes behind the crosswalk next to a substantial amount of blood right there and so I looked at one of the officers in the face and I said those are my daughter’s shoes. I said she had blue, blue eyes and curly blonde hair and those are her shoes right there. Where is she? He said ‘I think your daughter is actually being care flighted.’”
Four-year-old Juniper Ammons and five-year-old Ja’Corey Dunlap were care flighted to UC Davis Medical Center with serious injuries.
Five-year-old Axel Skike and another four year-old girl also suffered serious injuries but were taken by ambulance to local hospitals.
“Even though we didn’t do anything… You still feel that parent guilt that no matter what when your child was terrified you weren’t with them,” Catie Ammons said.
The next 24 hours, these parents will never forget.
“I’ll see my son broken, in my mind’s eye for the rest of my life,” Dunlap said. “He was so bruised and I couldn’t touch him because he was just surrounded by all these doctors. Pretty much everything after that is a blur.”
In the days and weeks following the crash the parents became friends at the hospital but for the Ammons family, every second was filled with uncertainty.
“Every minute was so life and death just because of the swelling she was having in her brain,” Catie Ammons said.
After the shock wore off, anger began to set in.
“It took quite a while before I could calm down and really kind of think about things but yeah, just anger,” Dunlap said.
The off campus walks which parents say they had no idea about.
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The crosswalk, which the El Dorado County Department of Transportation had allocated funds to improve in 2018, yet hadn’t made any improvements.
And the driver that had an unobstructed view of 21 people in a crosswalk but didn’t come to a stop before hitting them with his van.
All questions these families hoped would be answered, would bring them closure or at least justice for their children.
But almost 8 months after the crash, on Jan. 12, 2024, El Dorado County District Attorney Vern Pierson announced he would not be filing any charges against the driver.
“The words that keep ringing in my brain is from the conversation with the DA… ‘He wasn’t on his phone, he wasn’t speeding, he wasn’t drunk and nobody died. So, no laws were broken,’” Dunlap said. “Those were his words to me.”
“If he had such a clear, unobstructed view, how did he hit my kid? How were there no laws broken here? I just don’t understand that,” Dunlap said.
An investigator for the El Dorado County District Attorney found the driver had Spotify and Google Maps open around the time of the crash, and going back to the CHP report the driver mentioned he might have looked down at GPS just before the crash.
“They know that he was on his phone,” Ojeda said.
“What was he doing?” Dunlap said. “Just I don’t understand that. I mean, how are there no laws broken here? It just doesn’t make any sense to me.”
The DA says if a victim is injured but not killed in a crash – the driver cannot be criminally charged without proof of reckless driving, which also requires “willful or wanton disregard for safety.”
In his filing decision, Pierson said, “however inexplicable and negligent the conduct is, there are insufficient facts to show that he was subjectively aware that his driving presented a substantial and unjustifiable risk of harm to others, and that he then willfully and intentionally ignored that risk. For this reason, the DA claims, the facts wouldn’t satisfy the legal requirements for the filing of a criminal charge for reckless driving causing injury. “
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For the families of the children hit in the crash, the DA’s decision does not sit right.
Since the crash, the families impacted say their lives have changed dramatically.
“We’re, I think doing, at least for my family better,” Ojeda said. “We’re still reminded of it constantly. Axel still has to go in for surgery again, which is going to happen in the next couple of months. So it’s not like we’ve moved on completely from it.”
“I think it gets a little easier every day. But then every time I think that JC wakes up with a nightmare,” Dunlap said.
“We’re doing okay, the future is just so unknown… You know, Juniper’s future,” Catie Ammons said. “We’re always kind of struggling and up and down with the ideas we had for the future prior to the accident… But again, that balance of gratitude, she’s alive and there was a point where the doctors didn’t think she would be, but you know, she’s getting physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, we’re working on mobility, but she can’t walk without using a walker now. You know, things are just different in our life. It’s just very different. As you know, all of our lives are different.”
Juniper Ammons suffered a severe traumatic brain injury because of the crash and each child hit by the van is scheduled for surgery in the coming months to continue the healing process.
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Meanwhile, the El Dorado County Department of Transportation in December, began safety improvements to the crosswalk where the children were hit, which they expect to be complete by the end of 2024.
The families say they feel the county’s efforts, the DA’s decision and the school teachers’ apologies are not enough. And these parents will continue to tell this story and talk to their kids about it for the rest of their lives.
I asked Chelsea Ojeda what she tells her son Axel about the crash.
“That sometimes that’s how it works,” Ojeda said. “That even though he’s not at fault for this that we will fight for it. I always tell him that it’s unfair and he understands that but mostly that we will fight for him.”
All three families declined to comment about future lawsuits.
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