Street Racing St takeover.
Sigal, whatever you want to call
it, it's dangerous, it's illegal
and it is on the rise in Texas.
So now families impacted by Shree
tracing are teaming up to save others
from the same heartbreak joining us
this morning with more on street
racing kills awareness pushes the
San Antonio mother who started
the group Lily Tree, Hope Puckett,
as well as Josh Zuber with her plate taxes.
Good morning to you both.
Good morning, Lily.
If we could, let's start with you.
Tell us your story.
Well, uhm, I started a street
racing kills uh, my organization.
Uh, when my daughter Valentina that
is Sandra passed away to Australia
racing crash and she was only 16.
I didn't know what Street Racing was at
the time and never really heard about it
and I was going into my life normally.
Uh, when she just asked me to go
to a girlfriends house and then
to have a sleepover?
I didn't see anything wrong with it.
I took her chapter off.
I did have a beautiful feeling when I
saw her standing invited by the door.
It was an overwhelming feeling of love.
And I just thought to myself, you know,
she's just so beautiful standing there.
And. Went home,
you know that I know that was the last
time I was ever gonna see her alive.
I had that feeling.
It was just like I said,
a lot of love however went home
waiting for her focal had no idea.
She would always call me all the time.
I mean I got here or text me or anything.
Or like I was a football at
1:00 o'clock in the morning.
Hurry up and get here.
Valentina was in a crash.
I got my son.
We went, you know what's going on.
It was working in the morning,
went to the hospital where they
told me her best friend actually
told me Valentina die.
I collapsed on the floor.
My son picked me up.
We still did not wanna believe it. With that,
you know there were several kids in the car.
She must be another hospital.
They got the wrong person.
We went to the house.
The police was waiting for
me and they gave me that.
The notification and I didn't know
for a long time what had killed her.
It took me awhile to finally
be able to read the report.
When I read the report and I was
thinking like why did I do wrong?
So Mom was like too lenient with her.
Shouldn't have let her go that day?
Should I just probably to sleepovers forever?
Was she had kids were going to a party?
What did we do wrong?
Both of us?
Oh really.
I'm so sorry for you,
and they were at the party.
They were gonna go back home and
on the way back home he had three
girls in the car when I was in
the back seat and she fell asleep.
Hey so uh,
next coworker driving around and they
got together side by side and they
challenged the church where we Torres.
Uhm?
He was going over 100.
Crashed against an issue we couldn't stop.
Did they get the fence and the only
one that passed away was Valentina
and we are so incredibly sorry for your loss.
Lily and thank you for sharing
your daughter story Josh.
Obviously San Antonio is no stranger
to street racing when we say
it's on the rise here in Texas.
How much are we talking about exactly?
You know, really illegal street racing.
It's become an epidemic
during this pandemic, right?
We've seen that a lot more people
have more time on their hands.
And really until recently.
We saw lower levels of traffic
which really opened up the roadways
so the latest text out statistic
shows when it comes to speed
related injuries and deaths.
2020 a very deadly year as a matter of fact,
there was a 15% increase in the
number of speed related fatal
crashes in 2020 compared to 2019,
so this trend going in the wrong direction,
wrong direction and that's why AAA is
partnering with organizations such as
Street Racing kills to raise awareness
about this very deadly and dangerous.
Problem
well the problem is Jos it's it's not
just in in Lily's a great example,
daughter is a great example about this.
It's just not the kids who are
behind the wheels of the people
that are behind the wheel either.
This puts everybody in danger.
Yeah, it certainly does.
You know we're talking about not
only do you put yourself if you're
participating in this type of activity,
the driver endanger other drivers.
Of course, pedestrians, bicyclists,
even when doing these sideshows these
intersection takeovers they are illegal and
they put the spectators at risk as well.
So really bottom line is.
Don't participate in illegal street racing
as well as these intersection takeovers.
These sideshows and also make sure you
know for the younger driver in your house,
the teens, the younger drivers make
sure that they know that illegal street
racing is just that it's illegal as
well as dangerous and make sure you're
checking out you know what it is.
Maybe they're putting on their vehicle
those modified performance enhancement part.