Group uses wrecked cars to deter drunk driving
HOUSTON (KTRK) -- We have a story about one group's mission to stamp out drunk driving. Krysta's Caring Angels is using the actual wreckage of cars involved in deadly drunk driving crashes to remind people about what can happen when a person gets behind the wheel drunk.
The couple behind the campaign knows all too well about the dangers.
They are twisted pieces of metal and plastic that sit in a salvage yard but they will not be scrapped, because of the stories they have to tell
"This is reality. This is real. The vehicles behind us they've all been fatalities and it happens just like that," said Mark Rodriguez who lost his daughter by a drunk driving accident.
The Rodriguez family learned that in a terrible way. Four years ago their daughter, Krysta was struck and killed by a drunk driver.
"She was 22 years old. She was a huge part of our life and we have to live with this every day," said Krysta's mother Terry Rodriguez.
Four months after her death, even as they were still numb from grief, her parents founded Krysta's Caring Angels, to increase public awareness about a preventable crime and this is how it's done. The vehicles in which people were killed now have messages through names, pictures and warnings.
And during holiday weekends, when DUI's increase, they become a travelling billboard about what can happen to a person, a family, to children, through no fault of their own.
"It affects everybody. They can come up and touch these vehicles and see where they were in the vehicles when it happened. It needs to stop," said Terry.
A mass of metal and plastic a symbol of lives that should never have been lost, it has an effect on those who see it. Mark will never forget this encounter.
His eyes were filling up with water tears and he goes, I'm the reason you're out here," said.
This Friday night and Sunday night, we will be pulling all five of our real DWI crash vehicles up and down Highway 6 in northwest Harris County from 7pm until 10pm raising DWI awareness.
