The father of a teenage girl who was beaten during a road rage incident in Gilroy is hoping a man who helped stop the attack will come forward to be recognized as a Good Samaritan.
Destiny Huerta, 18, was driving to work on a recent morning when a female driver’s road rage got the best of her. According to Destiny’s father Javier, who detailed the incident for the Dispatch, the woman repeatedly cut his daughter off. As they both neared the intersection of 10th and Monterey streets, the woman exited her car and began hitting Huerta in the face multiple times, Javier said.
Destiny was in trouble. But when a man in a pickup truck stopped, got out of his vehicle and said something to the woman who was hitting Huerta, momentum shifted. The attack stopped altogether.
Now, with Thanksgiving approaching, the Huerta family wants the opportunity to show the stranger—the one who they say saved their daughter—some gratitude.
“Thankfully (Destiny) just got a busted lip and a black eye. Those go away. It could have been a whole lot worse,” Javier said. “I just want to let him know we’re grateful—just for the fact he took the time to help. Even if he doesn’t come forward, we just want him to know we appreciate what he did.”
Regardless of whether the man comes forward, the Huerta family just wants him to know they’re grateful for what he did.
Not much is known about the other woman involved in the road rage incident, described by the family as an older woman in professional attire, either. All bruises heal, Javier points out, and words are what matter.
Not only did the man say the right words to make the beating to stop, he stayed with Destiny and talked her through the experience, even recommending just before he drive off that Destiny should fill out a police report—advice she followed.
“We need more people like that here in Gilroy,” Javier said. “We really do.”
