This Is What Drunk Drivers Do To Families

Woman lost her husband and unborn baby to a drunk driver

On August 2nd, Kristian Guerrero and her husband Fabian Guerrero-Moreno were driving on Highway 21 in San Marcos, TX, when a car driven by 21-year-old Shana Elliott crossed the center line and struck them. The crash killed Guererro-Moreno and put Kristian in the hospital with a brain bleed. She was 19 weeks pregnant.

After two days in the hospital, doctors were forced to induce labor and, on August 5th, she gave birth to her son Fabian James, who she named after his father. The couple was married just last November and Fabian James was to be their first child. Father and son were laid to rest in a joint funeral on August 12th.

Elliott, who has been arrested two other times this year on felony drug charges, admitted that she had been drinking while floating on the river with friends. She remains in jail on $385,000 bond and is currently charged with two counts of intoxicated manslaughter and one charge of intoxication assault with a vehicle.

In Guererro’s viral Facebook post she has a picture of their totaled car, and a picture of her in the hospital after enduring 24 hours of labor to deliver her son. She is battered and bruised but smiling, because she was, “finally…able to hold my son.”

Guerrero’s post is heartbreaking and deeply moving, not only because of the photos she shared but also because of the message she sends. “It IS okay to stop a friend from driving, it IS okay to take someone’s keys away from them when they’re showing signs of being drunk. And it IS okay to pick up the phone and call for a ride if you find yourself feeling a little too tipsy,” she writes. “It’s not a sign of weakness. It’s a sign of maturity to be honest with yourself and know the consequences of driving drunk outweigh any kind of shame you might feel admitting you’re too drunk to drive. What’s not okay is spending the rest of your life with the guilt of knowing you’ve taken someone’s life and taken someone’s life away before they even got a chance to be in this world. It’s not worth it.”

The fact that this woman is able to send such a kind and empathetic message after what she has been through is astonishing. No one would blame her if she yelled, screamed, and cursed at everyone and everything for the rest of her life. Hopefully, someone out there will be inspired by her grace and strength to take a stand of their own against drunk driving, whether it’s by supporting the cause in their community, standing up to their friends, or not getting behind the wheel themselves.

We were so excited,” Kristian told NBC News. “Fabian would just look at me, look at my stomach and smile. All he wanted was a son.”