‘She has her little spotlight’: Drunk driving victims honored with signs in Mount Charleston

Angela Fernandez placed a sign with a red bow and her younger sister's name on it on a roadside near Fletcher Peak, a summit in Mount Charleston.

"She has her little spotlight now," Angela said on Wednesday. She had been driving her brother and sister home on June 25 when another vehicle hit her from behind, sending her car into an embankment. Police said they found an open container of alcohol in the other driver's vehicle after she fled the scene.

Angela said she made it out unscathed with the exception of a lacerated spleen, but her 14-year-old sister, Tonya Melissa Fernandez, was killed. Her brother, Daniel Fernandez, nearly lost an arm, Angela, 17, said. "He wanted to be a baseball player," she said. "Now he can't even use his right arm."

After the initial impact, Angela said Tonya was unresponsive. Angela added that it brings her some peace of mind knowing that Tonya wasn't in pain when she died and couldn't see what she and her siblings were going through, "late at night, and stuck in an embankment all alone."

Tonya was excited to grow up, Angela said. "She treats everyone with so much kindness. She was the sweetest girl. She loved God. She always wanted everybody to be loved," she said of her sister.

"Don't drink and drive," Angela said in an interview at a Metropolitan Police Department station on Kyle Canyon Road.

Angela was joined by dozens of people there to mourn loved ones killed in crashes caused by impaired drivers. Families celebrated their loved ones by placing a sign bearing their name along Kyle Canyon Road.

"We're honoring victims, and we're also providing awareness for our visitors that come up to beautiful Mount Charleston for the holidays," said Sandy Heverly, executive director and co-founder of Stop DUI, a nonprofit dedicated to stopping people from driving under the influence.

The origins of Stop DUI

Heverly began campaigning against drunk driving 35 years ago, at a time when Kyle Canyon Road was seeing 17 impairment related fatalities a year.

Stop DUI partnered with the old Mount Charleston Lodge and Nevada Highway Patrol to create the Red Ribbon Campaign, placing ribbons on mile markers and snow poles as a sign for drivers to only drive sober.

Fourteen years ago the campaign decided to "amp it up," Heverly said, displaying the names of victims of drunk driving on signs.

In the last 35 years, Heverly said the number of people killed along the same road that once saw 17 deaths annually was two. This number is still too high, she said.

"We know that drunk drivers never take a day off, and we also know that they work overtime on the holidays, and that's why these signs are so incredibly important," Heverly said. The signs still bear images of the original red bows.

Members of Metro and Nevada Highway Patrol were present at Wednesday's event. "Each one of those signs that are being posted represent a loved one," said Kevin Honea, a trooper with Nevada Highway Patrol.

"Unfortunately, two of the names that are being added on signs are co-workers of mine. They're brothers of mine."

Trooper Alberto Felix and Sgt. Michael Abbate were killed by a drunk driver on Nov. 30. They were honored with signs Wednesday. The driver, Jemarcus Williams, was given the maximum sentence possible.

An empty seat at the table

"We're broken. We went from a family, to us," said Denise Parish, standing at Metro's Mount Charleston station with her granddaughter Bailee Berges.

Parish and her husband, Adolph Weiss, raised Berges. But this year, the holidays will have one empty seat at the table.

Weiss was struck by a suspected drunk driver on April 20 while giving somebody a ride home, Parish said. "The sun's out, I cry. The moon's out, I cry," she said, through tears.

"He's been there for every Christmas, every Thanksgiving, every holiday. This year is going to feel really different," Berges said. Her grandfather was always there for her for anything she needed, she said.

When Berges was born, Weiss got new tires for their car. "Why? To be safe. To bring the baby home from the hospital, safe," Parish said.

Also gathered near Kyle Canyon Road were Kipalee Prince and Darlene Post. The two are "glued at the hip," Prince said, but they had only met once before April 13, 2023.

That was the night that their husbands, David Prince and David Post, were both killed in the same crash caused by a suspected drunk driver.

The two men were underground miners and good friends and had just gotten off work. They were riding together when they were struck, overturning their car, which caught on fire.

Since then, their wives have gone through a grueling court process and mourned the loss of their husbands.

David Post was a huge Packers fan with a great sense of humor who loved reading about history, according to Darlene Post, who called her husband her honey bee.

David Prince loved joking around and teasing his grandkids, Kipalee Prince said. "I was his princess. Everybody knew it," she said. "He was kind. He would stand up for the underdog."

"There's just no excuse for drinking and driving," Kipalee Prince said. "This isn't a club anybody wants to be asked to join, and so we just hope people will think twice. Everybody knows it's wrong. Just nobody thinks it's going to happen to them."