Christmas Eve Tragedy Leads to Drunk Driving Crackdown

After Angelina Hernandez ate dinner with her fiance and friends on Christmas Eve 1999, she left for a few minutes to get dessert.

She never returned.

About 9:20 p.m. a drunk driver ran through a stop sign at the intersection of Orange Grove Avenue and 7th Street in San Fernando and struck her car. Hernandez, 23, who lived in Sylmar and worked at a bank, died at the scene. She is survived by a daughter, Adriana, 9, and a son, David, 5.

“She just left for pie,” said her fiance, David Galvez, 25. “I never expected her to leave and never come back. Sometimes, I still think she is going to come back.”

In response, San Fernando police will begin cracking down on drunk drivers. Over the next two years, officers will set up 12 checkpoints in the city’s hot spots, looking for swerving cars and nervous motorists.

The first checkpoint will start operation Sept. 16 in a yet-to-be-determined heavily trafficked area, said Sgt. Michael Harvey, who is in charge of the operation.

The checkpoints are to be staffed for eight hours on weekend and holiday nights.

“We are just trying to prevent more tragedies,” Harvey said.

San Fernando leads Los Angeles County cities of similar size in the annual number of arrests for driving under the influence. Under California law, motorists caught driving with a blood-alcohol level above .08% can lose their driver’s license, be fined thousands of dollars and spend up to two years in jail.

With a population of 24,560, San Fernando had 265 drunk driving arrests in 1999, according to police records. Hermosa Beach, with a population of about 20,000, was second with 203 the same year.

Other small communities were well below those figures for 1999. Agoura Hills, population 20,108, had 44 arrests; Duarte, population 22,000, 35 arrests; Lomita, population 20,300, 23 arrests; and Cudahy, population 25,400, seven arrests.

San Fernando city officials have long associated liquor consumption with crime and delinquency. In April 1993, the City Council approved a liquor license ordinance that limits off-site licenses to one per 1,000 residents and prohibits alcohol sales by businesses if they are within 600 feet of schools, churches, parks or other licensed liquor establishments.

“Back in 1993, there were a number of alcohol outlets in the community and this resulted in the proliferation of litter, loitering, drunk driving and interference with children to and from school,” said Milan Garrison, director of the city’s community economic development. “We were concerned and decided to be proactive about the problem.”

Despite the city’s efforts, drunk driving arrests continue to average far more than 200 a year. But San Fernando is not the only area community experiencing the problem.

“Checkpoints have proven to be effective,” said Steven Bloch, a traffic safety researcher for the Automobile Club of Southern California. “Most people think checkpoints are there to arrest people. No, they are there to dissuade people from drinking and driving.”

San Fernando police plan to operate the checkpoint program with a $74,000 grant from the state Office of Traffic Safety. The money will pay officers’ salaries and the publication of a bilingual quarterly newsletter to raise awareness among city residents about the consequences of drinking and driving.

“Our objective is to influence drivers to make good decisions--to not drink and drive,” said Police Chief Dominick J. Rivetti. “Our goal is to reduce impaired driver hit-and-run, fatal and injury collisions. Our success will prevent senseless tragedies and loss of life in San Fernando.”

In the Hernandez case, Miguel Jose Valdez Jr., 24, of Sylmar, was convicted of one count of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and one count of driving under the influence causing injury, said San Fernando Court clerk Amanda Lozano. He is serving a 17-year prison sentence.

Hernandez’s family and friends wish there had been a checkpoint program in place before Angelina’s death.

Every time her mother, Rachel Torres, drives through the intersection where the crash occurred she thinks of her daughter dying alone in the cold street on Christmas Eve.

“I cannot picture it, her dying all alone, in that terrible accident,” said Torres, 45, of Canyon Country.

“Why does a person decide to drink and then take the road? Because of that, we are going to miss her soft laughter, her sense of humor,” Torres said. “Why did we have to lose her like that?”