Indian woman dies in hit-and-run

A STAFF WRITER

SAN LEANDRO, CA — Kiran Pabla, a 24-year-old Indian American woman who was out for a noontime jog near her home in San Jose, Calif., was killed on January 26 in a hit-and-run accident by two drivers who were racing against each other.

The two drivers, 19-year old Gabriel Becerra and 24-year-old Manuel Maldonaldo-Avalos, are under arrest and have been booked on charges of vehicular manslaughter and reckless driving. They are being held without bail.

A spokesman for the San Jose Police Department said the men were racing each other down Yerba Buena Road at speeds up to 70 miles an hour when they hit a guardrail and one of the cars crashed into Pabla just a mile from her home.

She was pinned to a tree and died at the scene.

Pabla was a graduate of Silver Creek High School in San Jose and had been pursuing a degree in business at California State University East Bay in Hayward.

Her mother is battling breast cancer and her father died more than a decade ago. She leaves behind two older brothers.

That stretch of road is notorious for speeding, said witnesses. A makeshift memorial with flowers and candles was set up on the corner of Yerba Buena Road and Edenwood Drive in San Jose.