Mom of 3 killed after accused drunk driver in forklift strikes SUV, Washington cops say
.png "Jessica Valdez, 25, was killed when an accused drunk driver in a forklift struck the SUV she was a passenger in on Feb. 7, 2023, in Seattle, police said. She left behind her three children.")
The family of a 25-year-old mother of three who was killed in a crash involving a forklift first learned of her death on the news.
“You don’t even know the pain that I have in my heart,” her father, Jose Duran, told KIRO-TV.
Jessica Valdez was killed when an accused drunk driver in a forklift struck the SUV in which she was a passenger on Tuesday, Feb. 7 in Seattle, police and the news outlet reported.
Valdez’s family said they first saw the crash on the news and said the vehicle looked familiar, The Seattle Times reported.
When the 54-year-old man driving the forklift collided with Valdez’s vehicle, it sent the SUV into a landscape truck, police said.
She was taken in critical condition to a hospital, where she later died, police said. The 27-year-old driver in the SUV was taken in serious condition.
The landscape driver was taken to a hospital in stable condition, while the man driving the forklift was arrested, police said.
Police said in a probable cause statement that he was under the influence of alcohol during the crash and had a breath alcohol content reading of .203%.
“She was the glue that held our family together,” her 17-year-old niece Chayan Trujillo told The Seattle Times.
This story was originally published February 10, 2023 at 4:48 PM with the headline "Mom of 3 killed after accused drunk driver in forklift strikes SUV, Washington cops say."
