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LAS CRUCES - The previously convicted drunken driver who plowed into a Las Cruces married couple Saturday night wasn't just allegedly driving drunk and working on open container of Budweiser, she also had a warrant stemming from another car crash, where she'd allegedly been drunk, in possession of an open container and had failed to call the authorities, according to New Mexico State Police. And, she was texting - at 55 mph - when her GMC pickup truck crossed the center line into the southbound lane of Stern Drive, and right into the path of George and Judith Foster's Chevy Tahoe, police said.
Nancy Moreno, 31, remains at the Do-a Ana County Detention Center with a $25,000 cash-only bond, facing charges of causing great bodily injury by vehicle, driving with a suspended license, having an open container of alcohol in the car, and driving without insurance, said state police Capt. Rich Libicer. She was wearing a seat belt and was not injured in the crash.
The Fosters - he the principal of Desert Pride Academy in Anthony, N.M., and she the principal of University Hills Elementary in Las Cruces - were also wearing seat belts when the two cars collided just before 8 p.m. Saturday, around mile marker 5, just outside Mesquite, N.M. The Fosters had left their granddaughter's choir performance and were headed to the El Paso International Airport to pick up their son Brian, who was returning from a friend's funeral, said Tashya Carrillo, 35, their oldest daughter.
Moreno, who
The crash sent George Foster to University Medical Center of El Paso in a helicopter, where he remains in intensive care, on a ventilator, with a broken femur, a rod in his leg, a shattered ankle and more surgeries to come. His wife, who was released from the hospital Wednesday afternoon, was taken by ambulance to MountainView Medical Center in Las Cruces with a lacerated spleen, according to family.
Measured that night, Moreno's breath-alcohol content was a staggering .23 - the equivalent of six or seven unmetabolized drinks - Libicer said.
"She could have called the police to come get her," he said. "We would much rather have spent our time doing that than something like this."
And when the Foster family found out Moreno's alleged drinking wasn't an isolated incident, they became even more enraged.
"My parents have always been very adamant (about not driving impaired), whenever we have any kind of get-together, it's a very big message and not taken lightly," Carrillo said. "People die and you don't drink at all and drive, period. It's not an option."
Moreno was convicted in 2001 of drunken driving and driving without insurance, court records show. In April, after another crash, Moreno was cited for driving with a suspended license, failing to give immediate notice of an accident and having an open container of alcohol in her car. She was wanted on a warrant for failing to show up in court on those charges when Saturday's crash occurred, court records show.
The Foster family was furious, Carrillo said, and personally appeared in court for Moreno's arraignment Tuesday to successfully advocate for a high all-cash bond. Initially, Las Cruces Magistrate Judge Oscar Frietze was going to allow Moreno's bond to be set at $15,000 surety, so she would have been freed with just a $1,500 payment, said Ashley Foster, the Fosters' other daughter.
"She would have gotten out and probably killed somebody else ... (Frietze) was under the impression that this was her first DWI," she said.
Moreno sat, head down, crying a little, as the family made their case, Carrillo said.
"We said, 'I'm sorry, but she's had plenty of chances and she could walk away from that accident. She didn't call 911, it was somebody else who drove up, who got out and tried to save my dad's life."
In fact, said Ashley Foster, Moreno tried to run away Saturday night.
"She already had an accident in April and fled the scene," Foster said. On Saturday, "she had to be retrieved by a state police officer. She got out and ran - she didn't go over to the car to see if they were OK, she took off running."
News of the crash has spurred prayer chains, get-well card drives and donations at churches and, especially, the schools both Fosters headed. Former El Paso principal Don Smelser is serving as interim principal at Desert Pride, while assistant principal Teresa Tenorio-Chacon has temporarily taken the reins for Judith Foster at University Hills.
The Foster family is grateful, most of all, for the community's prayers and their father's "miracle" survival. And, though they'll be fighting for the harshest penalty of law, they said they are also praying for Moreno, who has children of her own to take care of.
"I think, in time, she needs forgiveness," Carrillo said. "And I pray she's able to take good away from this."
They're also hoping for another, smaller miracle. George Foster might be able to be taken off his ventilator today or tomorrow, said Ashley Foster, who is getting married on Dec. 31. She hopes her father will be able to accompany her down the aisle, even if it's in a wheelchair.
"He's not going to be able to walk for a long time," she said. "On Saturday, he was excited; he had just gotten off crutches (from a foot injury) and was excited he'd be able to walk down the aisle. I had just picked up my wedding dress that day."
But the Foster family is already thinking beyond that.
"We were pretty appalled at the system," Ashley Foster said, "and by the low consequences for somebody with a DWI ... with a seventh (drunken driving charge), the maximum you can get is three years (in prison). Vehicular manslaughter, the most you can get is six years, when you can get nine years for trafficking cocaine."
Drunken driving, a problem the state has been fighting for decades, has suddenly become "so personal," Ashley Foster said.
"We just want to spread the word," she said, "and maybe, make a difference to change the laws."
Ashley Meeks can be reached at (575) 541-5462
By the numbers
Drunken driving in Do-a Ana County in 2010
• 27 checkpoints
• 75 saturation patrols
• 11 alcohol-related crash fatalities, out of 24 total
• 192 crashes with injuries, out of 536 total accidents with injuries
• 406 drunken driving arrests by state police
• About 10,000 state police citations
Source: New Mexico Department of Transportation and New Mexico State Police
On the road
• Superblitz anti-drunken driving campaigns are gearing up for the holiday season
• Residents of Do-a Ana County can take advantage of Project HOME, which offers a safe ride home for a minimal fee Fridays, Saturdays and holidays between the hours of 5:30 p.m. and 3 a.m. Call (575) 524-TAXI (8294).
• Call 911 if you spot a drunken driver, or, from a cell phone, dial Drunk Busters at #394 (#DWI)
