Traffic victim remembered for her ‘grit’

Marisa O’Neil

No one could talk Claudia Young out of her daily excursion through

her Eastside neighborhood.

Friends and family, worried for her safety, warned her about

rolling her wheelchair along Westminster Avenue. But there she was,

every day and sometimes into the night, wheeling herself down the

street.

On Thursday night, their fears played out when a car struck and

killed Young as she crossed Broadway at the intersection with

Westminster Avenue.

She was 60.

“Claudia was her own person,” said 28-year-old Jason Shockley,

whose mother, Debbie Shockley, cared for Young in the Shockley home,

where Young lived. “She was a very nice, very loving person. We tried

not to have her go out at night. But she does what she wants.”

Shockley’s father bought a yellow reflective vest to help increase

Young’s visibility. But as she wheeled her way north on Westminster

Avenue in the darkness just before 6 p.m. Thursday, the reflective

stripes on the front of the vest weren’t enough to save her.

Trisha Lackie-Safdie, a friend of Young’s who lives at a home on

that corner, said she watched her roll quickly, her momentum

propelling her through the intersection. She called out to Young, but

she didn’t hear.

Then a car driven by Newport Beach resident Ty Tratar, 27, struck

Young in her wheelchair as he drove west on Broadway. The impact

carried her some 80 to 100 feet, Lackie-Safdie said.

Hours after Young was taken to UC Irvine Medical Center in Orange,

her reflective vest still lay crumpled in the street.

She later died of her injuries, including a major head trauma,

supervising Deputy Coroner Cullen Ellingburgh said.

Tratar was not cited, Costa Mesa Sgt. Marty Carver said.

Young lived in Newport Beach and Costa Mesa for most of her life

and graduated from Newport Harbor High School and Orange Coast

College, said her mother, Newport Beach resident Lois Irwin.

Young’s father, Al Irwin, coached football at Newport Harbor High

School from 1948 to 1955. He later coached football and swimming at

Orange Coast College and served as assistant athletic director at UC

Irvine.

Young attended OCC and “fell in love” with its agriculture

program, her mother said. She rode horseback and served as a

caretaker for a bull on the campus, something that gave her immense

pride, Lois Irwin said.

She later suffered a serious illness that left her with brain

damage and confined to a wheelchair, her mother said. She moved back

in with her parents in 1982 and then with a full-time care giver,

Debbie Shockley, about 15 years ago.

“She was a very strong-willed person,” Lois Irwin said of her

daughter.

Young’s daily rounds usually included a stop at Mi Casa restaurant

on 17th Street, Lackie-Safdie said. She warned Young to stay out of

the street, but there was no telling her what to do.

She had the grit and determination of a Marine sergeant,

Lackie-Safdie said.

“I don’t think any of us believed anything would keep her safe,”

Lois Irwin said. “I feel sorry for the guy who hit her.”

Her family plans to have Young cremated and her ashes scattered at

sea.

“That’s what she would have wanted,” her mother said.

* MARISA O’NEIL covers public safety and courts. She may be

reached at (714) 966-4618 or by e-mail at marisa.oneil@latimes.com.