Parents Ensure Daughter Killed at Freeway Call Box Will Be Long Remembered

LAGUNA NIGUEL —  Daniela Sacca died this week after being hit by a car, but to her parents, the 20-year-old Saddleback College student lives on through the people who received her organs in transplant operations.

“For us, it’s so special to know that she helped these people,” her mother, Linda, said Thursday. “It gives us some peace to know that she helped others.”

Sacca had survived another accident about a year ago and had to undergo shoulder surgery. She was on her way to her doctor’s office in Newport Beach Monday morning for what was to be her last checkup on the shoulder when she was hit.

“This was the irony,” said her father, Joe. “She was supposed to get a clean bill of health. As we all know, that didn’t happen.”

Their daughter’s car broke down on the San Joaquin Hills tollway. While she phoned for help from a call box, a car struck her and threw her 50 feet. She suffered multiple fractures all over her body, a broken neck and a brain injury. She was taken off of life support Tuesday and died at Western Medical Center-Santa Ana.

The accident remains under investigation, and charges are pending.

The Saccas said their daughter had a gift for working with children and planned to become an elementary school teacher. She juggled her college classes while working at Lighthouse Toys in the Mission Viejo Mall.

“She’d play games with all the kids,” her mother said. “People just loved her. Everyone who knew her never forgot her. ‘She was such a giving person and so bright, like a bright star.”

As a tribute to their daughter’s love of children, the parents have established a memorial fund in her name at Children’s Hospital of Orange County to benefit pediatric AIDS. They ask that people donate to the fund instead of sending flowers.

Donations to the Daniela Sacca Fund can be sent to CHOC Foundation, 455 Main St., Orange, CA 92868.

The funeral will begin at 10 a.m. Saturday at St. Timothy’s Catholic Church in Laguna Niguel, 29102 Crown Valley Parkway.