JOYCE — Friends of 16-year-old Jesica V. Iberlucea say she was the sweetest girl they knew.
“She thought about other people before she even thought about herself,” said Jessica Young, 15, who has known Iberlucea since the beginning of the school year.
Iberlucea was killed Monday morning in a head-on collision on state Highway 112 as she was driving to Choice Alternative High School in Port Angeles, where she was a sophomore and had a good attendance record.
She apparently lost control of her car on the wet road and it slammed into a logging truck traveling in the opposite direction.
Iberlucea’s family moved to Joyce from Burien this summer, friends said.
“Being a new student, she was just beginning to strike up friendships,” said Cookie Kalfur, alternative school administrator.
“She was popular,” Kalfur said.
Violet Ashley, 17, a senior at Choice, said, “She was always the first one to come up to you and say, ‘How’re you doing?”‘
Iberlucea was born in Argentina and moved to the Seattle area when she was 5, Young said.
She was “very bright-eyed and true to her Argentine culture,” Kalfur said.
“She had dark hair and big, dark eyes,” she said. “Very beautiful face.”
This full report appears in today’s Peninsula Daily News. Click onto “Subscribe” to get the PDN delivered to your home or office.
