Dozens of city officials, community organizers, mindful students
and families who have lost relatives to drunk driving circled
together with candles and posters near City Hall Monday night to
remember victims of drunk driving and gang violence.
Dozens of city officials, community organizers, mindful students and families who have lost relatives to drunk driving circled together with candles and posters near City Hall Monday night to remember victims of drunk driving and gang violence.
The vigil drew about 50 people who cuddled for warmth and passed around a microphone to share personal stories and to encourage residents to drink responsibly and avoid driving, especially during this holiday season.
“Many of my friends have been killed. They were innocent people just having fun and thinking about tomorrow when their lives were taken by someone who was drunk and driving,” Denise Belmont said.
The 15-year-old Gilroy High School student said she lost three friends who were 14, 16 and 17 years old last year when a drunk driver lost control of his vehicle and ran up on the sidewalk, striking them outside of a shopping center in San Jose. Belmont was still inside paying when the accident happened, and she said she discovered a fourth friend who had been on the sidewalk had survived. Months later, the two saw the driver begging for change on the street, clearly strung out, Belmont said.
“It not only changed my friends’ lives, it changed his life too,” she said after the vigil as she held back tears.
Fellow GHS student Devonne Saravia, 16, agreed.
“Drunk driving affects more people than you think,” she said.
As a peer health educator at GHS, she tries to educate colleagues about the challenges of depression, pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases as well as drug and alcohol abuse. Students routinely recount “how drunk they got” in the hallways, Saravia said, but rarely brag about drinking and driving.
One student’s sign injected a bit of humor into the otherwise-somber gathering: It read, “Santa does not drink and drive. Don’t do it.”
So far this year GPD has arrested 220 people for allegedly driving under the influence. That includes Julian Navarro Murillo, who pleaded no contest earlier this month to vehicular manslaughter and driving with a blood-alcohol level of 0.22, nearly three times the legal limit, according to a toxicology report. His truck slammed into Lourdes Sanchez’s car Sept. 16 as the mother of five and popular Eagle Ridge security supervisor drove to work. He could receive up to six years in prison at a January sentencing hearing.
This past weekend marked the beginning of the countywide “Avoid the 13” holiday DUI crackdown, and at least 59 motorists were arrested for drunk driving throughout Santa Clara County. That number is down from the same weekend last year, when 86 people were arrested for DUI over the two-day period, according to Sgt. Don Morrissey of the SCC sheriff’s office.
Of those arrested last weekend, Morgan Hill police arrested 13 DUI suspects, Sgt. Jerry Neumayer said. He said the department had two extra officers on local roads Friday and Saturday night, as they will every weekend during the “Avoid the 13” campaign, which started Friday and runs until Jan. 2. The Gilroy Police Department arrested 8 DUI suspects over the weekend, according to Sgt. Robert Locke-Paddon. None of those arrests involved traffic accidents.
When there is a DUI-related injury or death, Santa Clara County Fire Department Firefighter Art Tomasetti responds to many them. Monday night he encouraged people to call police when they see drunk drivers. Gilroy Police Department Community Service Officer Rachel Munoz and Police Chief Denise Turner also attended the vigil, and the chief said she was “really encouraged to see all of you out here, especially you young folks.” Councilwoman Cat Tucker spoke next and cautioned young drivers against “buzzed driving” as a way to avoid drunk driving.
Francisco Dominguez, strategic coordinator at South County Collaborative, a coalition of local non-profit health and human services providers, organized the event along with Mexican American Community Services Agency and the Glenwood Alliance Neighbors Achieving Success.
GANAS Director Saul Gonzalez said he had expected more people to attend, “but anything good starts small,” he said. The director said he has had friends on either side of the drunk driving problem: victims and perpetrators. After a concluding moment of silence, the crowd disbursed and Gonzalez said he found it important to remember victims so those still alive don’t drink and drive.
