Patriot Paradox
Posted on 11/08/2004 5:39:18 AM PST by stainlessbanner
ORLANDO, Fla. -- The family of two girls killed in a Central Florida crosswalk by a motorist allegedly talking on a cell phone plan to picket to change Florida law concerning using a cell phone while driving, according to Local 6 News.
Anjelica Velez, 5, and her sister Victoria, 2, were killed Oct. 27 as they crossed at a red light with their mother on Goldenrod Road.
The woman driving the car, Ashley Townsend, 22, will not face charges even though witnesses said she was talking on her cell phone and speeding, Local 6 News reported.
The Velez family wants to change Florida law banning drivers from talking on cell phones without hands-free earpieces.
'If my daughters had to die to change the law then let it be," father Ivan Velez said. "But I don't want my daughters' to die in vain."
The girls' family and friends will gather at the corner o f Goldenrod Tuesday morning at 10:30 a.m. to ask people to sign a petition to change the law in Florida, according to the report.
Watch Local 6 News for more on this story.
Big discussion if race was a factor in the accident.
she was speeding? sounds like she should be charged.
There's gotta be more to this! Is her father a bigwig politician?
I don't blame them for being mad that charges were not brought. I don't think it has anything to do with race, but the driver got away with murder if these facts are correct.
Witnesses say she was speeding. What's going on here?
The memories come in split-second flashbacks -- the touch of an arm, a smile, the sweet words from a little girl's lips.
And they pierce the heart like a knife.
Maybe it's the warmth of 2-year-old Victoria's tiny arms brushing against her mom and dad as she sleeps.
Or the competition between the toddler and her beloved 5-year-old sister, Anjelica, as they smother their parents with hugs and kisses.
Or those final words -- so few, yet so sweet. And, now, so hauntingly beautiful.
"Daddy, you don't know how much I love you."
That's what Anjelica told her father just before the kindergartner walked into Cheney Elementary School in east Orange County for the last time Oct. 27.
Ivan Velez, 31, would never see her again.
Yamilka Velez remembers her daughter smiling more than usual that afternoon because she had received her third good-conduct mark in teacher Carrie Vihlen's class. Her daddy had promised to buy her a goldfish if she kept up her grades at school.
Ten days after their only children were hit by an SUV and killed on Goldenrod Road, the Velez couple can barely cope. Their angels are gone, taken by a motorist, police said, who was talking on a cell phone and didn't realize the traffic light had turned red.
"The day of the accident my daughter tells me at school, when I dropped her off in the morning, she said, 'Daddy, you don't know how much I love you.' "
His voice breaking and tears streaming down his cheeks, Velez continued, "She walked away, and then she turned around and came back running and she hugged me real tight and she said, 'See you later, Daddy.'
"That was it. I didn't get to see her anymore."
Because all four slept together, the Velez couple have a hard time making it in and out of bed at their apartment. The girls had given up their room when their grandparents moved in.
"Imagine, the night before getting kissed. She [Anjelica] was always lovable like that," Ivan Velez said. "And Vicky's last words that I heard from her were 'Nigh. Nigh,' which means good night."
At school, at home, in their extended family and to strangers, Anjelica and Victoria stood out. If they weren't happily playing together, they were sharing their love of life with others.
"She always had a smile on her face. She liked to give hugs -- full of life," said Vihlen, the teacher who first met Yamilka Velez at the end of school when, barely an hour before the accident, the mother dropped off $6 for a future field trip.
Anjelica's 17 classmates made that trip Friday when they went to see a puppet production of Peter Pan and Wendy at Pinocchio's Marionette Theater. "She was a smart girl," Vihlen said. "I had high expectations for her."
Ivan and Yamilka Velez, 28, now say they want their tragedy to spur action. They want to lobby the state for a law that would restrict cell-phone use by motorists.
"I'm not saying, 'Don't use your cell phone,' but use an earpiece," said Velez, a body-jewelry-store supervisor who moved to Orlando from Philadelphia last year seeking a better future for his family. His parents, Haydee and Abigain Velez, also from Philadelphia, recently moved in with the couple to be closer to their only grandchildren.
"Something needs to be done," said Yamilka Velez, originally of Juana Diaz, Puerto Rico. "I would like the community to unite and help us pass this law so this would never happen to anyone. I won't be able to save my children, but I will help save others."
Florida has no such law, but New York, New Jersey and Washington, D.C., have passed one while other states consider it.
The couple also want answers about the accident at Goldenrod Road and Bates Road.
A Florida Highway Patrol report states that Ashley Townsend, 22, a student at the University of Central Florida, drove through the red light at about 3:15 p.m. that afternoon.
Yamilka Velez, seeing the green light on the crosswalk, pushed Victoria in a stroller while Anjelica walked ahead. Townsend, who according to witnesses was talking on her cell phone, barreled through the intersection, rammed Anjelica and hit the stroller with Victoria in it.
Anjelica died a few hours later, while Victoria lingered for a day. Their mother was uninjured.
It hurts, Ivan Velez said, that he and his wife have heard nothing from Townsend or her family since the accident.
"As a believer in God and Christ, if I had her in front of me and she apologized, I would hug her," he said.
Trooper Kim Miller, an FHP spokeswoman in Orlando, said the agency will help lobby for any law that would save lives.
"Anything that would give another layer of safety we would support," said Miller, who has asked the Velezes to appear at future campaigns.
Miller said it's still early to tell what action FHP investigators will recommend to the Orange-Osceola State Attorney's Office. "We're going to file the most appropriate charges," she said.
On Friday, troopers returned to the crash scene. With measuring tape in hand, they worked alongside a mound of plush teddy bears, bunnies, dogs and dolls left by well-wishers. The sidewalk also is adorned with signs in memory of Anjelica and Victoria.
The Velezes say they want a reduced-speed zone established for pedestrians at the intersection because many children and their parents use it after school.
They are also helping Cheney Elementary parents circulate a petition that demands school-bus pickups for students who live just less than two miles from school. The district now provides busing to students who live two miles or more from school.
The Velezes buried their girls Tuesday after a ceremony at which dozens of mourners watched them release two white doves above the small caskets. Soon, even more doves swarmed in the afternoon sky.
Ivan and Yamilka Velez credit their relatives, their faith in God and their support from fellow church members at Primera Iglesia Bautista Ebenezer for helping them get through these days.
"I ask God for strength because really it is not easy," Ivan Velez said in an interview from his home. "I'm just living minute by minute, hour by hour and day by day."
Seems odd.
Eventually the insurance industry and reasonable people, state by state, will put an end to this stupidity which has been killing people like these two children.....
And screw those selfish oafs who don't like it.
WINTER PARK, FL (AP) -- Authorities say a five-year-old girl was struck and killed when the driver of a sport utility vehicle ran a red light as she crossed a busy Orlando area street.
The Florida Highway Patrol says the S-U-V driver was 22-year-old Tallahassee resident Ashley Townsend. They say she dragged the girl and her two-year-old sister about 150 feet down a Winter Park street before she stopped.
Anjelica Velez was taken to Orlando Regional Medical Center by helicopter but later died. Troopers say her sister Victoria Velez was in critical but stable condition, but she was not expected to live.
The girls' mother was crossing the street with them, but was not injured.
Traffic charges are pending against Townsend, but troopers say she will not be prosecuted criminally.
Or an officer on the police force, maybe?
"...were killed Oct. 27 as they crossed at a red light with their mother on Goldenrod Road."
If they were crossing against the "red light" then the mother is at fault. If they had the green light then the driver ran the red light and is guilty.
Probably at the advice of a lawyer, but still classless.
Talking on a hands-free cell phone is no safer.
No, I think the driver is the one who ran a red light.
"Traffic charges are pending against Townsend, but troopers say she will not be prosecuted criminally."
Uh, why not? I know it was an "accident", but it sounds to me like a charge of criminal negligence or vehicular manslaughter could be laid. At the very least she certainly should be charged with failing to obey a traffic signal, and maybe speeding and careless driving. Or maybe the civil courts are the proper place to seek justice in a case like this? On the one hand, accidents do happen, but on the other the driver must face consequences for the deaths they caused.
The race hustlers in the NAACP are making themselves more irrelevant by the day.
Sounds like this had more to do with speeding and STOOPIDITY!!! This driver should be charged with vehicular homicide, or at the least, manslaughter! Her irresponsible actions caused the deaths of those two precious children, and she should face the consequences of her choices.
I'm not sure I understand how having her hands free would have prevented the driver from hitting the little girls. She was distracted by the phone conversation and would have been just as distracted if she hadn't been holding the phone in her hand. This woman is too stupid to be allowed behind the wheel, cell phone or not.
WE LIVE IN MAINE AND MY HUSBANDS NIECE WAS KILLED IN AN AUTO ACCIDENT BY A WOMEN USING HER CELL PHONE WILL DRIVING AND SHE ADDMITED IT, SHE CAME OUT OF A STORE PARKING LOT AND CROSSED INTO THE CENTER LANE AND HIT HER BROAD SIDE.. NO CHARGES FILED ON HER EITHER.. THIS SHOULD ME MAN SLAUGHTER! ALL STATES SHOULD BAN TALKING ON CELL PHONE IN A CAR.
Not crazy but our morals have degenerated to such a point that we, as a society, no longer have even respect for other drivers, pedestrians, etc. It's now an imperative that we get where we want, as fast as we want without regard for others on the road.
Lack of respect (Love thy neighbor) has been legislated, sued, embarrased and down right ignored out of our society. Sometimes I regret having children for I fear they will have nothing but a lawless selfish society waiting for them.
This bites. The woman, if she was speeding, was breaking the law and killed people. Vehicular manslaughter would be the charge I'd bring against her.
No need to ban cell phones. Just prosecute reckless driving that results in death or injury. It's that simple.
The problem is distraction in general, not the specific distraction. Do your research before jumping on a feel-good, "I'm doing something even tho it makes no real difference" bandwagon. We don't need more stupid, senseless, useless laws.
It is sad that if one side of society is given an advantage over the other there is no middle ground. When liberals find an opening they ram every thing they can regardless of the majority opinion of that issue. On the other hand Religious people or just people on the right have gotten so sick of getting walked on they are ready to not only fight but destroy the left. I know that may be a little off topic but.. well ... I guess it is a struggle to get everyone to obey laws or just be kind to your neighbor instead of creating this jungle we call society. Starting to believe I am babbling ... time for a cup of coffee.
The prosecution of reckless driving that ends in injury or death is an act that is too late. Why not prevent the injuries or death from occuring in the first place by banning cellular phone usage while driving?
If one of my loved ones was killed by someone using a cell phone while driving, I'd find little consolation in knowing that the offender would be prosecuted. My loved one would still be dead.
We have all seen the incompetence of those who drive while talking on their phones. People on phones simply drive slower or more recklessly. Time and again, I'll be in a slow lane and wonder why traffic is so slow. When I'm finally able to pass the offending car, I'll see that the driver is usually on a cell phone, oblivious to the fact that others are on the road.
What type of conversation could possibly be so important to risk the lives of other drivers and/or pedestrians? People talk too much as it is; I still don't see why people need to walk around stores or drive in their cars while talking endlessly.
This is sad. The driver should definiitely be charged with this killing - I feel for this family. However I am sick and tired of the demoncrats and their organizations trying to politicize everything to create tension and hate among the races. These groups and the people who run them are some of the worst racists in human history.
Talking on the cell-phone while driving may not be, per se, an illegal act in Florida--even though we probably all agree that it is dangerous.
As a matter of fact, it's not illegal in a lot of states, including my own (Texas).
The laws should be changed so that anyone using a cell-phone in their car must have (and use) one of the accessories that allows for hands off operation.
"The prosecution of reckless driving that ends in injury or death is an act that is too late. Why not prevent the injuries or death from occuring in the first place by banning cellular phone usage while driving?"
While I agree with your sentiments, it is a fact that banning some action does not stop that action from taking place.
However, if those who drive recklessly while being distracted by cell phone usage are charged and convicted for their actions, it will become clear to most people that driving while using a cell phone is a dangerous activity and that doing it creates a serious legal risk if the action causes an accident.
I'm opposed, in general, to banning activities. I'd rather see those activities stopped by enforcing existing laws.
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