Family of 14-year-old girl killed by alleged drunk driver in Newport Beach call for DUI reform
Family members of the teenage girl who was struck and killed by an alleged drunk driver on the Balboa Peninsula last weekend gathered at the spot of the deadly crash on Saturday to call for DUI reform.
The crash happened last Saturday, May 25 at around 6:45 p.m. near E. Balboa Boulevard and Palm Street, Newport Beach Police Department officers said.
Rosenda Elizabeth Smiley, a 14-year-old Rialto resident, was struck and killed in the collision, and on Saturday family members gathered at the same time of the crash to call for justice.
"My daughter never made it home," said Fillmore Smiley. "She didn't make it home because of the behavior and actions and choices of an alleged drunk driver. Because of that, Rose will never go to high school. She'll never graduate high school, there will be no sweet sixteen, there will be no prom."
He says that he tried to get in touch with his daughter moments before the deadly incident.
The driver, identified as 30-year-old Fontana man Joseph Alcazar has been charged with second-degree murder and for allegedly driving with a blood-alcohol level that was twice the legal limit. He already had two DUI convictions when he was arrested on Saturday.
Prosecutors say that Smiley and friends were crossing the street when Alcazar sped around a car that had stopped to let them pass, hitting her and running over another girl's foot.
"The decision to drink and drive cost my daughter six or seven decades, decades of her life," Smiley's father said.
Smiley's family says that Alcazar should have a mandatory prison sentence.