Sunday, February 22, 2009

Female drunk driver kills father, his little girl

What more can I say. Another family destroyed, a woman without her husband and one of her children due to suspected female drunk driver... the women are as bad as the men, irresponsible and heartless.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6275478.html

snip

Surrounded by family members at her northwest Harris County home, Rhina Ventura on Sunday tightly embraced a Dora the Explorer doll that was among her daughter’s favorite toys.
“She was a good girl. She loved her dad and her brother,” Ventura said after Gabriela, 4, and her father, Jony Ventura, 33, both killed early Saturday in a head-on crash caused by a suspected drunk driver.
“She’s a good girl,” Ventura said a second time, before breaking down in tears.
Ventura was going to work at a doughnut shop about 2 a.m. Saturday when his car was struck by a driver heading the wrong direction along northbound Texas 249 just north of Cypresswood Drive, Harris County sheriff’s deputies said.
Ventura tried to swerve away but was unable to avoid the collision. He was killed on impact while Gabriela was rushed to an area hospital, where she died.
Gabriela, known to everyone in the family as Gabby, was particularly close to her father. She sometimes accompanied him to the doughnut shop where he worked.
“She had to make sure he made (the doughnuts) right. I guess she got the first taste,” said Brett Benson, whose wife is Rhina Ventura’s aunt.
Sheriff’s deputies identified the other driver as Idania Sagastisado, 26. She was taken to the hospital in serious but stable condition, officials said.
After detecting a strong odor of alcohol on her breath at the crash site, deputies ordered a blood sample be taken at the hospital. Sagastisado is now facing intoxication manslaughter charges from the fatal wreck.
If the charge is filed, it won’t be the first time Sagastisado has been accused of drunk driving. According to Harris County criminal records, she received a 10-day jail sentence in March 2005 after pleading guilty from a DWI arrest.
In January 2006, Sagastisado also pleaded guilty to driving with a suspended license. She received a three-day jail sentence on that charge.
Friends and relatives remembered Jony Ventura as a devoted family man. In addition to providing a home for his wife and children in Harris County, Ventura also built a house for his mother in El Salvador.
“He was a very good person. He worked a lot but he was a good father,” said his sister, Blanca Garcia.
Ventura often worked multiple jobs to give his wife and children a stable life.