Makeshift memorial honors four killed at LV bus stop

Jen Lawson

Wednesday, March 16, 2005 | 10:51 a.m.

Sally Burgess didn't know any of the four people who were killed at a Northwest Las Vegas bus stop Monday morning, but she was moved to pen a poem about loss that she taped up at a makeshift memorial at the crash site Tuesday afternoon.

"I cried and I didn't even know these kids," she said. "It's a poem about how we cry when we lose people we don't know."

Other strangers have joined relatives, friends and acquaintances of 36-year-old Samantha Gail Allen, 14-year-old Angelica Jimenez and her sister, Raquel Jiminez, and Reginald E. Williams, both 16, in visiting the site on Smoke Ranch Road at Rock Springs Drive where the four were struck by an SUV and killed. Bouquets of flowers, teddy bears, notes, cards, banners and even Dubble Bubblegum had been left there Tuesday.

All three teens were students at the nearby Cimarron-Memorial High School. Allen worked at a Family Dollar store, her mother said.

Metro Police Detective Bill Redfairn said it's not clear if the four victims were waiting at the bus or if they were simply walking by the bus shelter when they were struck.

The bus that stopped there would have taken the teens away from school. Also, Allen's mother, Vergus Bailey, said her daughter routinely walked to a different bus stop that she took to work across town.

Police said 34-year-old Veronica Schmidt apparently had a medical problem that caused her to lose control of her Ford Explorer, which jumped the curb and slammed into the bus stop.

Schmidt has not been charged with a crime in connection with the wreck. Police are still investigating and waiting for the results of a toxicology test which will show what medication, if any, was in her system at the time of the crash. Alcohol was not a factor, Redfairn said.

Police initially said Schmidt failed a field sobriety test and she was taken to the Clark County Detention Center, but she wasn't booked.

"All I can say is after talking to her and her family members, I do believe she has a medical condition," Redfairn said, adding that he has the names of her doctors and plans to confer with them. He wouldn't confirm whether Schmidt has epilepsy.

After the wreck Schmidt told police she didn't remember what had happened, Redfairn said. When he told her four people had been killed, "she became very distraught," he said.

He said he wouldn't rule out charges at a later date. In the meantime police don't believe Schmidt is a flight risk; she has roots in Las Vegas and is cooperating with police.

At Cimarron on Tuesday, students said the day was somber and everyone was discussing the wreck.

"I heard, 'Did you hear what happened?' a million times today," 15-year-old Meghan Bryant said, adding that one of her teachers began crying after hearing the news.

Samantha Bedillo, 16, said she didn't know the students who died, but that doesn't mean she wasn't affected.

"If they have a memorial service, I'll go," she said.

At the crash site, Elsa Romero, 16, said she had known Raquel Jimenez since they had attended Brinley Middle School together.

Karen Ruano, also 16, said she met Raquel at the beginning of this school year.

"She was really funny," she said.

Romero, Ruano and other friends of the victims are trying to organize a car wash after school today to raise money to give to Jimemez's family.