Andrea's Project Tragedy

Andrea Elizalde (2001-2019)

Article by: Amarillo Globe News

Andrea Elizalde was a bright, 17-year-old, Randall High School student with a wide-open future in front of her. She was in her senior year of high school.

She took pictures for her senior class photos the day before she was killed in a drunk-driving car wreck.

“My daughter had dreams, my daughter was going to be a brain surgeon, my daughter was going to spend the summer with doctors I know in Houston,” said David Elizalde. “My daughter was a wrestler, my daughter was leader, my daughter was very diversified.”

On Easter Sunday, April 21, Amarillo Police Department officers responded to a one-vehicle accident on Dumas Highway and Hastings Avenue at 9:37 p.m. According to reports, a 17-year-old male driver was speeding northbound on the highway when he lost control, left the roadway, struck a light pole, slid along a guard rail, drove off of the Dumas Highway overpass over Hastings Avenue, struck the ground, slid up the cement embankment on the north side of the overpass, and struck the bottom of the southbound overpass, before coming to rest on Hastings Avenue.

A beautiful body was thrown from the car, a beautiful face smashed into concrete, while the driver and a 22-year-old male passenger remained in the vehicle. The passenger sustained life-threatening injuries, but the driver’s injuries were not life-threatening. The APD said speed, alcohol, and not wearing a seat belt were all contributing factors in the crash.

David Elizalde didn’t know the young men who were in his daughter’s 2017 Chevrolet Corvette, and there were other things he did not know.

“She liked a little bubbly apparently; I didn’t have a clue,” he said. “She let two guys in her vehicle, and she knows that’s insane. She (also) knew that alcohol was bad.”

A phone call alerted the Elizalde family, including two young daughters, about the wreck and directed them to the social media app Snapchat.

“The guy was sitting there in the ambulance right after the wreck … Snapchatting,” Elizalde said. “He had a picture of the car, a picture of the ambulance, the guys drinking, them taking off in the car right before the accident. I knew within eight and a half minutes of when my daughter got in the wreck that she was dead.

“It’s just not real in that moment — it’s not real, but it is.”

A mother’s memories

The Saturday before her death, Andrea was preparing to take senior class photos.

“She let me (do her) makeup and her hair,” said America Elizalde. “She asked me what (she) should wear for the pictures. She was so happy that day we spent together. I wish for that day.”

America said although she incubated for 41 and a half weeks, once labor was induced, Andrea was in a hurry to get in the world.

“When I was pregnant with her, I was wishing to have a girl. I was always looking for dresses,” she said. “When they induced my labor, there was no time to get an epidural. Her head was coming out; she was born really fast.”

The Elizaldes’ nine pound, healthy baby girl would lead a normal life, testing the waters as some teenagers do, until her life was cut short by bad decisions and recklessness.

“She was a little bit of a woman, she was a little spoiled,” America said, “but she was a beautiful, fun girl with a big heart.”

Double whammy

A mere nine months before Andrea’s death, the Elizaldes’ middle daughter Devette, 10, nearly lost her life in an auto wreck.

“She knows she’s supposed to have her seat belt on when she’s driving (my) RZR,” her father said. ”(But) she gets on top of a hill, takes her seat belt off, puts it behind her back and takes off.”

Devette lost control and flipped the all-terrain vehicle.

“She breaks her skull, breaks her nose and breaks her eye socket,” Elizalde said. “She almost killed herself. The worst day of her life was the worst day of my life because I thought I was going to lose a kid.”

Grieving

Elizalde said while so much has been a blur in the aftermath, he remembers the last week of Andrea’s life and the last day they were together as a family.

He said, “We had gone to church, she was late for church, we were in the park having a great time, the day’s over, we were going to Wonderland Park and she (asks), ‘Do I have to go?’”

The father’s and daughter’s cars were parked side by side at the park as Andrea negotiated her freedom for the evening, under the guise of meeting a known girlfriend.

“She lied to me,” he said, “and she went with her friends (that I don’t know) — two and a half hours later, she’s in an accident that killed her.”

Following Andrea’s senseless death, her dad experienced exhaustion, unrestful sleep, forgetfulness, loss of appetite, and crying.

“You don’t realize how much energy it takes to live, and I’m (normally) a very energetic type of guy,” he said. “That was my little buddy; she was my number one. It’s very difficult to function as a man in my life right now without crying uncontrollably.”

Strengthening his religion

“She had 1,700 people at her funeral. I’ve had prayers every single day and they were my strength,” he said. “When I couldn’t get out of bed, I reached out to people. I’ve got no pride in my feelings.”

Although the family attended church at Trinity Fellowship Church, Elizalde said he has incorporated God into his life more.

“God knew what date she would die, and I believe that, but he didn’t do that,” he said. “She chose to put herself in that situation; God did not.

“It wasn’t God’s fault. We are all given a choice and … we have to pay the consequences for the price of sin. Sickness, dying, diseases, car accidents — it’s not that God allowed that to happen; that comes through our sin.”

Elizalde has even extended his prayers to the family of the as-yet unidentified driver.

“I have prayed because I know their family is affected by their ignorance; you just want everybody to be OK,” he said.

In Andrea’s honor

“Kids do stuff and nobody wants to be a bad friend, so they don’t tell mom and dad about those things,” he said. “If she wouldn’t have died, I probably would have never known she was out there being stupid.”

Elizalde wants to take the pain from his family’s loss and let it fuel his mission to keep others from drinking and driving.

“There’s devastation from people not taking accountability and understanding that for every action there’s an equal and opposite reaction,” he said. “I want to create an atmosphere in Amarillo with Chief Drain and the police officers that we can get away from having so many DWIs in Amarillo.”

With a team of support, including some of Andrea’s high school friends, Elizalde has chosen to focus the campaign on two slogans: It’s not OK and it’s that easy.

“It’s not OK to drink and drive; it’s not OK to not take care of your friends,” he said. “It’s that easy to save a life.”

He is also planning to make a step-by-step accurate reenactment of the fatal crash to show the real-life consequences of driving under the influence.

“If I can save people from getting DWIs, save people’s lives in my daughter’s name, I think that I’ll have accomplished something big,” he said. “I’m still emotionally unstable, but I don’t forget that my daughter needs me to do something for somebody. I know that everything I’m working toward will make a difference for my baby.”