A 32-year-old man was convicted on Thursday of driving with a suspended license and causing another driver severe brain and spinal injuries in a hit and run crash that occurred in Garden Grove on Dec. 11, 2011 at 5 a.m.
According to the Orange County District Attorney, Oscar Paz of Huntington Beach was driving at a high rate of speed in his Volkswagen Jetta in the slow lane on the Garden Grove Freeway, approaching Magnolia Street in Garden Grove.
At the time, Paz’s license was suspended for failing to appear in court for a speeding ticket. That morning, Paz rear-ended a Nissan driven by the 66-year-old victim, Gopal Krishnan. The crash caused the victim’s vehicle to be pushed across all freeway lanes and into the center divider. Without stopping to assist Krishnan or offer any kind of help, Paz left the freeway and parked his car in a nearby strip mall. Paz then fled on foot and called his girlfriend for a ride home.
The California Highway Patrol, which investigated the case, found Paz’s car when officers arrived at the scene. The victim was quickly taken to University of California, Irvine Medical Center in Orange, where he was in a coma in critical condition for several weeks. Krishnan sustained severe spinal and brain injuries of which he is still unable to walk or speak. Two days after this incident, Paz turned himself in to the CHP Westminster office.
Paz was tried at the North Justice Center in Fullerton and was found guilty by a jury on one felony count of hit and run with permanent injury. His sentencing will begin on Sept. 21 at 8:30 a.m., where Paz faces a maximum sentence of four years in state prison.
Thank you so much for your article. Someone finally acknowledged Gopal using his entire name. i just want you to know that he was a wonderful man and was a loving father to our son. Although your article states that he has brain and spinal injuries, you will never understand the depth of this heartbreak. Gopal used to jog every day and was in great shape for a man of his age. He was on his way to church the morning of the accident to pray of others….this was a very common thing for Gopal to do. I just recently made a trip from my home in Pennsylvania to see him and was devastated as to his condition. The most joy this man can enjoy now is to try to swallow the juice of a popsicle. He has the mental faculties of a newborn. My son and I both wish he had died in that crash rather than spend the next 10 to 20 years in a near vegetative state. Mr. Paz would have served far more prison time and we would not have to watch a loved one suffer for the rest of his life. I only wish that the laws would change to provide stiffer prison sentences for “people” that do things like this.