Mom of DUI victim talks about her devastating loss
LIVERMORE, Calif. (KTVU) - The holiday season was 25-year-old Alexys Garcia's favorite time of the year. But there is no joy for her family in Livermore now that she's gone.
On Thanksgiving Eve, "Lexy" was seriously injured as a passenger in a Kia SUV driven by a friend who is suspected of driving drunk.
The driver lost control along Stanley Boulevard in Livermore, ran off the road and the SUV flipped several times.
A 16-year-girl, another passenger, died at the scene. Lexy died a week later in the hospital.
A roadside memorial now marks the crash site. The young woman's family says what happened is a lesson about choices and accountability.
Family members shared with KTVU videos and photos of Lexy.
"She just loved everything about life...from animals. She had compassion for people," says Kinga Garcia, Lexy's mother.
Garcia describes her daughter as fun loving yet responsible. Lexy had taken a break from college at Cal State East Bay.
She worked as a bar tender for an event planning company. Relatives say she was big on never drinking and driving.
"If anything was a downfall for her was that she trusted too many people," says Garcia.
"I want justice for Lexy. I want to see the driver convicted," says Karyn McQueen, her sister.
26-year-old Lauryn Davis of Livermore was the driver. She was released from custody five days after the crash.
The California Highway Patrol says this was Davis's third DUI arrest. It is recommending that she be charged with second degree murder and felony DUI.
"I can't even wrap my head around what happened," says Aubrey Blomquist, Lexy's friend who spoke with KTVU as she visited the crash site.
She showed us a photo taken recently of the two of them when she asked Lexy to be her maid of honor.
"I want her to be by my side on the day of my wedding and now, she's not gonna be," says Blomquist.
The family says Lexy and the group were at a bowling alley before the accident, that she had left her own car in the parking lot because she had drank and did not want to drive.
Relatives suspect Lexy was unaware that Davis was impaired because they had not been together the whole night.
"Just because that person tells you they're fine to drive , you can't just trust them," says Garcia.
"This epidemic that we're dealing with, something needs to be done so this doesn't keep happening to families," says McQueen.
The family hopes to help get legislation passed to keep drunk drivers off the road.
"Our lives our completely shattered all because of somebody's bad decision and no regard for human life," says Garcia.
Lexy's family says she loved the holiday season, but without her, there will be no celebration.
"We just bought an urn for my daughter's ashes and paid for her cremation. That's our Christmas," says Garcia
The family is coping by looking at videos and photos of Lexy as a vibrant young woman .
They want to remind people that drunk driving shatters lives and is preventable.
The Alameda County District Attorney's Office says the case is under investigation and no charging decision has been made yet.