Woman who nearly died in “distracted driving” crash shares her story to save others

DeeDee Gonazalez talked about the crash that nearly took her life.

“i just kept thinking i couldn’t die before my mom, so that was my main worry if I was going to die or not,” said Gonzalez.

Left in a hospital bed in Los Angeles for 31 days, her injuries included an “open book pelvic fracture”, for which the survial rate is 48 percent.

The crash happened in Rancho Palos Verdes, March 18th 2017.

“I did almost die, I almost bled to death. It took half a day to stop my bleeding, and then 9 hours of surgery to put me back together,” said Gonzalez.

She and her husband were riding separate motorcycles, when a “distracted driver”, approaching from the opposite direction, drove over the center median, and crashed into DeeDee head on.

The impact threw her off her motocyle, and into bushes off the side of the road.

“I don’t want to be angry at the driver who did this, so yeah, a part of me forgives him, because he has to live with knowing that he permanently injured someone, that is his burden,” said Gonzalez.

Still going through therapy, and rehab, she is able to stand and walk for limited periods of time.

But, she says she lives in contstant pain.

Wanting to help others avoid a similar experience she is telling everyone “don’t drive distracted”.

A study from the Automobile Club of Southern California shows the typical distracted driver is between 25 and 39 years old, and/or is someone who sends or receives more than 50 texts per day.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says distracted driving claims an average of nine lives each day.

In fact, in 2017, at least 3,166 people died in these types of crashes.

Experts think the numbers are higher.

“You can’t drive down the street without seeing someone at least looking on their phone, so we need to make the community aware of what is going on,” said California Highway Patrol Officer Jackie Quintero.

DeeDee Gonzalez hopes what happened to her will cause all drivers to think twice before taking a hand off the wheel, or their eyes off the road.

“Distracted drving is one hundred percent preventable,” said Gonzalez.