San Clemente Girl Killed by Truck in South Carolina
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COLUMBIA, S.C. — Local and state authorities were trying to locate the driver of a pickup truck that struck four children visiting from California, killing a girl from San Clemente.
State Highway Patrol officers said the children were walking along a road in the northeast area of Columbia around noon Thursday when they were hit by the truck. Their grandparents were walking on the other side of the road.
The impact instantly killed Lauren Bernardo, 11, of San Clemente, authorities said. Her cousin, 10-year-old Larrae Bernardo, of Northern California, died about an hour later at Richland Memorial Hospital.
Larrae’s brothers, Carlos Bernardo, 12, and Paolo Bernardo, 8, also of Northern California, were listed in stable condition Thursday at the hospital, authorities said.
The children’s grandparents are from San Clemente. The cousins from Northern California had been visiting their relatives there before going on to visit an aunt in Columbia, an uncle said.
The uncle said Lauren Bernardo’s parents, Romey and Evelyn Bernardo, flew out of Los Angeles Thursday night for South Carolina.
“They were just in a daze,” said the uncle, Gus Velarde, 58, of Huntington Beach. “They were still rejecting (that) their daughter died. “
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