Earlier this year, two friends, Giao Pham and Andy Lynn, were visiting San Diego from San Francisco. The two men stopped at a local San Diego bar. At the same time and in the same bar, a young San Diego woman, Alondra Marquez, was drinking with her friends. Messrs. Pham and Lynn, recognizing that they shouldn’t drink and drive, decided to take a Lyft back to their hotel. Ms. Marquez, despite her obvious inebriation, decided to drive.
In a tragic irony, Ms. Marquez, driving over 100 mph and with a blood alcohol level2 to 3 times higher than the lawful amount of 0.08%, slammed into the Lyft vehicle in which Messrs. Pham and Lynn were riding, killing Mr. Pham and severely injuring Mr. Lynn. It was reported that Ms. Marquez’s friends tried to stop her from driving, but she insisted she was okay to drive. The irony does not stop at the coincidence that both parties, unknown to each other, but whose fates were intertwined, were drinking at the same bar at the same time. The sadder irony is that the responsible drinker, Mr. Pham, ended up as another DUI fatality, while the irresponsible Ms. Marquez, while seriously injured, is alive.
It came out in court that Ms. Marquez, at the young age of 22, has a serious substance abuse problemthat started when she was in the eighth grade. This puts her at high risk of another DUI, but not very soon—she first has to spend time in prison.