Highway 14 Crash Kills Two On Weekend Trip With Family

Posted by: Perry Smith in Santa Clarita News November 11, 2013 - 1:01 pm 0 1,939 Views

A fatal crash in the desert claimed the lives of two Santa Clarita residents over the weekend, according to one of the victim’s family members.

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Nicole Hoffman, 19, and Robert Corona, 25, both of Santa Clarita, were involved in a collision on their way out to California City to go on a weekend trip with family members.

The fatal crash took place on Highway 14, near Highway 58, on Friday, around 9:15 p.m.

“She went to go turn around because she was ahead of me and I had to stop by the store with my friend in another car,” said Brittany Lauren Reph, Hoffman’s older sister. “When she turned around she was hit twice. After the first time, Robert got out to save her and that’s when they got hit again.”

Corona died that night, Reph said. Corona had been dating Hoffman for some time.

“Robert died that night trying to save my sister,” Reph added. “The love of his life, and my sister, was pronounced brain dead (Sunday), but she will be saving eight different people with her organs because she was a donor.”

That would have been very important to Hoffman, her sister said.

“My sister wanted to be a nurse and help people and now she is,” Reph said.

Hoffman, a recent Valencia High graduate, worked with Corona at the In-N-Out location on Bouquet Canyon Road, according to a mutual friend of theirs.

“They were both the happiest people,” said Crystal Chavez, who knew Hoffman and Corona for several years and worked with them. “Their main goal was to always laugh and make everyone else around them happier, and they always put everyone before themselves.”

“They had all this positive energy and they were friends with everyone, and they would eat everything,” Chavez joked, adding that the In-N-Out where they worked together had a family-like atmosphere, which is part of why it was so hard.

“We were all heartbroken, but we wouldn’t have expected anything less,” Chavez said, of the way Corona died. “He was always trying to help anybody (he could).”

Friends and family are fundraising to help out with the cost of memorial services, and anyone who is interested in helping out can contact Reph at 661-877-0102.

A vigil is planned for 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 12 at Central Park, and the times for both services have not yet been announced, but the story will be updated when that information is available.