San Francisco Area Man Gets 1 Year In Prison For Hitting Bucks County Boy After Ballgame
By Paul Kurtz
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - A San Francisco-area drunk driver who struck and critically injured a nine-year-old Bucks County boy after a Phillies-Giants game last summer has been sentenced to prison.
Andrew Vargas, 22, is going to prison for one year. He's also been sentenced to five years probation, a nine month DUI program and community service.
Vargas was drunk when he ran over Ryan White with his pickup truck on August 4th as the boy and his parents were leaving AT&T Park in San Francisco where they watched the Phils beat the Giants (see related story).
Ryan suffered a brain injury, a broken pelvis, left leg and ankle, as well as internal injuries. He is scheduled to have surgery Friday to repair a severed urethra, according to his mother.
Roseanne White says she's still not quite there in terms of completely forgiving Vargas.
"We had hoped that Ryan would be better by now. And I think it would have been much easier to totally forgive him if Ryan had been better, but we still don't know when the end of this is going to be," she says.
"We totally understand that this young man did not set out to hurt Ryan. What he did was the result of a very irresponsible decision to drink and drive, but it wasn't an intentional thing."
Vargas apologized to the family in court Wednesday after pleading guilty to one count of driving under the influence of alcohol.
A trust fund has been set up for Ryan, who is now 10, to help with medical expenses.
Donations can be mailed to Ryan White Trust, P.O. Box 562, Langhorne, PA 19047.
