A Los Angeles woman was arrested Monday and charged with felony vehicular manslaughter for allegedly striking and fatally injuring a 65-year-old man in the Westlake district while checking her cell phone messages.
Rosario Maximilia Valdezinda, 38, was expected to be arraigned in a downtown courtroom sometime Monday afternoon in connection with the death of Yong Do Kim of Los Angeles, who was struck about 8 p.m. Wednesday near the area of Sixth and Grand View streets.
Kim was running across Sixth Street in a marked crosswalk when he was hit by Valdezinda’s eastbound vehicle, police said.
“It was determined that Valdezinda was looking at her messages on her cellphone when the collision occurred,” according to a police statement. “She remained at the scene and attempted to render aid as required by law.”
Police initially arrested Valdezinda for driving without a valid license, a misdemeanor, but after further investigation, she was also booked on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter.
“The driver actually was on her cellphone looking at her WhatsApp application viewing her messages,” Detective Moses Castillo of the LAPD’s Central Traffic Division told ABC7, which aired surveillance video of the moments leading up to the collision.
Valdezinda, who was released from custody after posting $50,000 bail, faces up to six years in prison if convicted as charged.