El Paso traffic deaths are on the rise in 2011

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EL PASO – The young woman was found lifeless, inside her Pontiac Solstice, submerged in the Franklin canal under 10 feet of icy, cold water. According to police, Corina Bejarano, 21, was driving at high speed on Saturday October 23, 2010 at approximately 1:30 a.m. with her headlights off, when she missed a curb, drove off the Cesar Chavez Highway and flew over two embankments of railroad tracks into the canal. She remained under water for more than four hours before police pulled her out. Bejarano’s death is just one of thousands of fatalities that happen every year in Texas. According to the Texas Peace Officers Crash Report (click here to download the report), 2,793 traffic accident deaths were reported in Texas in 2009.

Standardized Descansos

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EL PASO, Texas — On Dec. 29, it’ll be three years since Grace Talamantes last saw her daughter. However, each time she passes by the intersection of Montana and Hawkins, where a blue-tinted aluminum panel sign imprinted with a message “Please Don’t Drink and Drive In Memory of Valerie Talamantes” marks her daughter’s last moments, she is reminded of Valerie. “The timing was right,” Talamantes said. “It’s a constant reminder for me just knowing that was her last place that she was at and, at the same token, letting people know where ever they see them that it’s something that can happen to anybody everywhere.”

The sign is used to remember Valerie, who passed away after a drunk driver barreled into the back of her sitting-vehicle in 2007, and to raise awareness and deter drunk driving.

Martin Cano – Living too fast

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Martin Cano

December 1989 – March 2008

EL PASO, Texas —When driving, we often come across roadside memorials in remembrance of someone whose life was lost in a car accident. A descanso, meaning “to rest,” is a cross or other memorial left by the family or friends of the deceased marking the last place on earth where their loved one was alive. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, car crashes are the leading cause of death in teens, and one out of three is alcohol-related. Such was the case of Martin Cano, a Santa Teresa High School senior who along with his friend Adrian Navarro passed away the night of March 23rd, 2008. “I didn’t think it was correct for Martin to drink at such a young age and I would tell him ‘mijo, calm down, you’re living your life too fast,’” Carolina Cano, Martin’s mother recalls.