Family calls for justice after DUI driver leaves three hospitalized on way home from water polo game
Three people, including two high schoolers, remain hospitalized in Orange County after a violent car crash with an alleged DUI driver as they were on their way home from a water polo game.
The crash happened last Wednesday at around 6 p.m. as Alexya Garcia, 15, Nathalie Berrelleza, 16, and her mother were just five minutes from home, near Paseo de Valencia and Los Alisos, after a game at Laguna Hills High School.
Police say they were hit by a driver who was under the influence of drugs and alcohol, and the force of the crash has left them hospitalized a week later.
Family tells KCAL News that the DUI driver took a left turn, lost control and hit the median before slamming into their car head on, and that the speed of impact was more than 100 miles per hour.
"Everyone's life has been affected," said Alex Garcia, the older brother of Alexya. "The fact that this guy jus has money and is able to get out, it's pretty upsetting."
The suspect, who has been identified as 39-year-old William Martensen, has pleaded guilty to four DUIs since 2007, including a felony DUI in 2016.
Families are outraged after he was able to bail out just a day after the crash.
"I know that his injuries were not as bad as my sister, Nidia's or Nathalie's, and to me that's even more unfair than him just walking out," Garcia said.
He's demanding justice for his sister, who has already undergone a nine-hour surgery and spent the last week fighting for her life after the grisly crash.
"The seatbelt cut so deep into her stomach they had to take out her small intestine. They had to reconstruct her lower abdomen," he said. "Her muscle separated from her skin, she fractured her aorta, she fractured her ribs. She has bruises from her shoulders down to her bottom waist."
Doctors say that the two girls, both freshmen at LHHS, are recovering slowly and that Nidia remains in critical condition.
