Franklin High Graduates Who Died in Sunday's Car Crash Remembered

The families and friends of two Highland Park residents who graduated from Franklin High School and were killed in a car crash on the 110 freeway this past Sunday have launched fundraising drives in light of the outpouring of public sympathy for their tragic deaths, even as the California Highway Patrol awaits results of possible drunken driving in the Nov. 3 accident.

Blanca Belman Almanza, 23, and Ana Graciela Cuadra, 22, were killed when a Nissan Sentra they were traveling in with three other people hit a tree and a chain-link fence on the northbound 110 freeway near Avenue 52 at around 1:35 a.m.

Belman Almanza, a 2008 Franklin High graduate, had worked as a waitress at El Arco Iris, the famous family owned restaurant on York Boulevard, for about four years, according to the restaurant’s owner Angie Montes. 

The young women were celebrating Graciela Cuadra’s upcoming 23nd birthday on the night of the crash, Montes told Patch, adding that Belman Almanza and Graciela Cuadra were best friends. 

Graciela Cuadra reportedly had a six-year-old daughter and two-year-old son.

Montes said the crash occurred because of poor lighting and evidently because the driver of the vehicle mistook a small emergency parking area by the freeway for an exit.

On Wednesday night at El Arco Iris, several people put $5 notes into a small donation box to raise funds for Belman Almanza. “She was great—she was always on it and ready to help you out,” said Patrick Ladner, a Verizon cellular towers builder who lives two blocks away on Avenue 57 and says he has been eating at the restaurant for the past 30 years.

“I’d come here on Friday mornings to have breakfast and she’d be walking down,” Ladner recalled, referring to Belman Almanza. “We’d walk together and talk. She’ll be missed.”

Meanwhile, the CHP is awaiting results of a blood test performed on the driver of the ill-fated car, reportedly a 22-year-old resident of the City of San Gabriel.

CHP Officer Chris Baldonado told Patch Friday that the driver was still incapacitated in hospital and that the test results could take a few days more.

"Whenever there is a freeway accident, there's always the possibility that alcohol was a factor," Baldonado said, adding that there was no evidence so far of DUI in the Nov. 3 accident because the CHP was unable to conduct a breathalyzer test on the spot in light of the extensive injuries to the driver.

El Arco Iris's owner, Montes, dismissed news reports that have suggested the driver might have been intoxicated. Montes said she spoke to Belman Almanza's parents on Tuesday and they assured her that nobody in the vehicle had been drinking on the night of the crash. 

"They are a very religious family," Montes said, adding: "Blanca was always very cautions—she was paranoid about having somebody drive and be intoxicated. She would have made sure there was a designated driver."

Click here to access a site where the family of Graciela Cuadra is raising funds.