Families left motherless by drunk driver


The Mendéz house
 The families of victims killed by irresponsible drunk drivers must live with the pain of losing their loved one as well as with the pain of facing an unjust legal system and an indifferent society.

It is tragic to see children who have lost their parents in accidents caused by drunk drivers go to bed dreaming about their mother or father only to wake up to an emptiness in their family. These parents are no longer with their children to share their dreams, joys and struggles.
"I always dream about my mother," says nine-year-old Damaris Montoyo. Damaris' mother Reina Isabel Méndez and a co-worker were killed on February 14 when they were hit by a large truck driven by Franklin Rolando López, who was drunk at the time. Reina was 43 years old.
Damaris and her two sisters resist believing that their mother is dead. They say she is still out celebrating Valentine's Day, as she was the day she was killed.

Reina Isabel and her co-worker María Luisa were on their way home from a Valentine's Day party given by the cleaning company where they worked. At 7:00 pm that night, they were standing on the median of Boulevard Fuerzas Armadas, waiting to cross the street, when they were hit and killed. Each woman left behind seven children.
Both families were already poor, but the loss of these two women, who worked to support their children, has dramatically deepened the poverty in their families.

Both their stories are dramatic. María Luisa left behind a one-year-old daughter, a child so young she was still nursing. Little Loren Janette López is now being cared for by her older sister Delmis López, who is only fifteen years old. Delmis already had a son, and now she is often unable to buy enough milk to feed both babies well.

The Lopez children
 The sadness filling María Luisa's home is also found in Reina Isabel's family. Her husband, Santos Montoya, refuses to speak with anyone. He only goes to work and then stays in his room, as if trying to hide from the reality of his sorrow.

The youngest children of both women are now living in a very precarious situation. The family of the driver, Franklin López, has not even helped the victims' families pay for the funeral expenses, although Rolando López, Franklin's father, has promised to give each familiy 50,000 lempiras (nearly $3,000).
"We miss our mother," says Geraldina López, Maria Luisa's oldest daughter. "That is why we ask this man to stop and pay for what he did, because it's not as if he just killed some animals."

She adds indignantly that Rolando López once joked that she should give little Loren away if she couldn't support her.

According to José Iván Mendoza, Geraldina's husband, Rolando López is now offerning María Luisa's family a monthly payment of 1,000 lempiras over five years, which would total 60,000 lempiras, in payment for their mother's death.

The victim's family did not accept that offer and are seeking legal assistance in demanding that Rolando López give Maria Luisa's children monthly payments until they reach 18 years of age.

But these families are not just victims of a drunk driver. They are also victims of the Public Ministry who is supposed to be in charge of defending their rights and of the police who are supposed to protect the safety of the population.

Since the moment the women were killed, the Public Prosecutor has been negligent in handling the case. He let the drunk driver go free within 24 hours and never had a blood alcohol test done, which is the only test accepted by the courts for drunk driving.

The blood test was necessary if the Public Prosecutor was to prove to the court that the driver was drunk at the time. The saliva test performed by the Transit Police does not have legal standing in the courts according to the law.

A driver is considered to be impaired by 0.10 miligrams of alcohol per 100 milileters of blood. The Penalty Law for Habitual Drunkenness establishes that 0.07 miligrams of alcohol per 100 milileters of blood as the legal limit.

According to alcohol charts, when there is 0.5 to 0.8 miligrams of alcohol per 100 milileters of blood, a person experiences a sensation of euphoria and is less able to assess risk. For this reason, some countries set 0.05 as the legal limit for driving.

"When drunk driving cases arise, the blood alcohol test should be administered immediately because alcohol is processed by the body over time. It is urgent that the tests be done immediately to prevent drunk drivers from committing these crimes with impunity," said Amilcar Rodas, the director of Forensic Medicine.

Thanks to publicity for the case in the media, the Public Prosecutor's office decided to reopen the case. The court issued an order on February 18 for Franklin López's arrest, but the General Office for Criminal Investigation has not yet carried out the order.

Proposal to reduce accidents caused by drunk drivers

As Congress contemplates aspects in a new Transit Law to better control drunk driver, experts in law enforcement maintain that a series of reforms must be made to the law.

One of the suggested changes is an increase in the penalties of aggravated manslaughter. According to the Penal Code, this crime brings five to eight years in prison.

The Association for a more Just Society (AJS) will present two proposals to Congress. One would reform Article 221 of the Penal Code to make a blood or breath alcohol test obligatory in suspected drunk driving cases. It would also mandate that the courts accept breath tests as well as blood tests as evidence. The second reform would be to Decree 100-2000, the Law for Penalties in Alcohol Related Offenses, to require Transit Police to administer immediate breath alcohol tests that will be taken as evidence when a drunk driver is tried.

There is also a provision that would set aside a portion of the fines applied in traffic cases for a special fund kept by the General Treasury of the Republic to maintain and service the breath alcohol testing instruments.

Finally, they are proposing that 0.07 be the legal blood alcohol limit for drivers.

If these reforms had been made years ago, many of the tragedies cause by drunk drivers could have been avoided, and many other drunk drivers would have been held accountable for their irresponsible crimes. Franklin López would be in prison now. Breath alcohol tests would have been performed by the police and that evidence would have been used to legally sentence him to a prison.

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