When Mia Dominguez entered the world Thursday night as a healthy
baby girl, sighs of relief could be heard from San Jose to Morgan
Hill and beyond. That she was alive at all was considered something
of a miracle.
When Mia Dominguez entered the world Thursday night as a healthy baby girl, sighs of relief could be heard from San Jose to Morgan Hill and beyond. That she was alive at all was considered something of a miracle.
“We were really worried at first,” said Lt. Joe Sampson of the Morgan Hill Police Dept.
Thursday afternoon Mia’s mother, Sabrina, 21, was in the wrong place at the wrong time. She had stopped in to the Morgan Hill Post Office to mail a letter just as a car driven by Eula Chipman, 75, came barreling through the doors and smashed into the lobby wall. Sabrina was in the way and she was very pregnant.
“It could have been worse,” Sampson said on Friday. He said that, while Dominguez appeared to have broken legs, no upper body injuries were apparent so they hoped the baby had not been injured.
Dominguez was taken by medical helicopter to Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose where she later delivered her baby.
“She’s healthy, and she’s been healthy from the beginning of my pregnancy,” Dominguez said from her hospital bed Friday morning.
“I’m a little tired, but I’m doing OK.”
Dominguez gave birth to her daughter naturally, although doctors considered performing a Caesarian section. It was Dominguez’s first childbirth.
It is still unclear if Dominguez’s labor was triggered by the accident. Two separate ultrasounds done several weeks ago produced two different due dates – Feb. 22 and March 5. Doctors took X-rays of Dominguez’s legs Friday morning.
“I think I have one leg broken (her left) and two broken toes (on her right foot),” Dominguez said.
No other persons were injured in the incident, police said.
On Monday, Dominguez hired John J. Garvey, a personal injury case atttorney, to represent her. Garvey did not return several phone calls Monday.
Dominguez recalled the accident vividly.
“I was stepping to my left and all of the sudden I felt glass in my face and in my hair. I heard a bang and the car crushed my legs,” Dominguez said Friday morning. “My shoes went flying off and after the car pinned me it kind of bounced back about two feet.”
Dominguez says her first thought was about her 11-year-old nephew Joshua who had been waiting for her outside.
“I wanted to let him know I was all right,” Dominguez said.
But quickly she realized she could not walk very far.
“I knew then my legs got hurt,” Dominguez said.
That’s also when Dominguez assessed her mid-section and figured the baby had gotten through the ordeal all right.
The Post Office looked a bit different now but is open for business. Postmaster Darrell Stoke said the retail counter opened later than usual Friday morning because his employees were talking to counselors brought in to discuss the incident.
Thursday’s glass and debris had been swept up. Stoke said Monday morning that he had not heard back from the contractor with the estimated cost of repair.
By Friday morning, while the entire glass door and transom structure was gone, lobby access to post office boxes was very much open.
“It’s like Hawaii,” Stoke said of the open air lobby. A deep porch, not damaged in the accident, protects the lobby from rain and, except for the missing doors, the only sign of trouble is plywood covering the stamp machine, destroyed in the crash.
Stoke said he hadn’t seen Dominguez or the baby yet but was planning to visit soon.
“I’m going to run up there today or tomorrow to visit,” Stoke said. “I’ll take flowers, cards and anything else people want me to take.”
Dominguez said that, as of Monday morning, Chipman had not called her at the hospital.
MHPD Lt. Terrie Booten said Monday that, while charges had not been filed against Chipman, she still has a valid driver’s license. The department submitted a request to the state Department of Motor Vehicles asking that she be given a driving test and an eye test and suggested revoking Chipman’s driver’s license.
Thursday’s crash was the third time a car plowed through Post Office windows. In early 2003 a car took out the windows at the north end of the building, narrowly missing patrons standing in the Post Office box bays.
Sampson said he was discussing safety features with Post Office officials.
“We talked about placing bollards in front of the windows,” Sampson said. Bollards are sturdy concrete or steel posts erected to stop runaway vehicles.
Staff writer Eric Leins contributed to this report.
