A young woman who was a budding journalist was killed on the Fourth of July in Mobile, Alabama, near the George Wallace Tunnel. According to police, she was a passenger in the backseat of a car that was stopped. They say a pick-up truck crashed into the car.
The young Texas native, who would have turned 25 just a week later, was active in non-profit work. She worked with a Guatemalan organization called Long Way Home that works to build classrooms for primary schools in that country. She had also set up a “Birthday for a Cause” page to benefit the organization One Day’s Wages. She had asked for donations instead of birthday gifts.
Just days after the Houston woman’s death, Long Way Home had received over $10,000 from almost a hundred people in her memory. Meanwhile, One Day’s Wages says it will leave her page up, and that money raised on it will go towards child education. The site notes that the organization works “to alleviate extreme global poverty.”
The woman was a technical director for the Telemundo network in Houston. She also worked for a radio show and magazine called “Houston on the Move” that focus on the Hispanic community in Houston. She had studied broadcast journalism and belonged to the Houston Association of Hispanic Media Professionals.
It was not reported what caused the pick-up truck to crash into the car or whether either of the drivers were cited with traffic violations or charged with any crimes. According to the One Day’s Wages website, the victim was traveling to Florida with her younger sister and a friend to celebrate her upcoming birthday.
Sadly, young, productive lives are cut short by car accidents every day throughout Alabama and the rest of the country. While no amount of money can bring back those who are lost, victims’ families can seek to hold at-fault drivers responsible in civil court to help recover medical and burial costs and lost wages. Some families choose to use damages awarded in these cases to help prevent similar deaths or to carry on the work being done by a lost loved one.
Source: Source: “Woman, killed in an Independence Day crash in Mobile, continues to inspire after death,” Theresa Seiger, July 8, 2014