Irina Reinoso, 22, was killed in the August 2013 crash.
Posted on 05/01/2015 9:24:25 PM PDT by nickcarraway
A Florida woman texted her boyfriend, "Driving drunk woo ... I'll be dead thanks to you," minutes before plowing through a red light and causing a fatal crash, police said.
The driver, Mila Dago, survived the August 2013 crash and is awaiting trial for the death of her friend and passenger Irina Reinoso, 22.
Dago had gone out in Miami that night as she was dealing with breaking up with her boyfriend, according to police records obtained by the Miami Herald last week.
Throughout the night, the then-22-year-old sent her boyfriend 60 bitter texts, including some that seem chilling after the crash, police said.
"I'm done you ruined me … you'll be the death of me," Dago wrote.
Dago sent her final texts while driving a rented Smart Car with Reinoso in the passenger seat, police said.
Three minutes later, she blew through a red light, colliding with a moving pickup truck at 4:44 a.m., police said.
Reinoso was pronounced dead at the scene.
The truck driver, Benjamin Byrum, 51, was knocked unconscious
"The Smart Car is what saved me," Byrum told the Herald. "If it had been anything bigger, I would have been in trouble."
Dago left the crash with bruises. She had more than double the legal blood alcohol content limit for driving two hours after the crash, police said.
She was arrested in January 2014 and put under house arrest after her release from jail on $20,000 bond, NBC Miami reported.
The 24-year-old has pleaded not guilty to DUI manslaughter, vehicular homicide and two counts of DUI with damage to a person.
Her trial date has not yet been set.
"Ms. Dago, who, with her family, prays every day for the young woman who passed and her family, believes it is disrespectful to the young woman's family to publicly comment," her defense attorney, David Rothman, said.
Reinoso’s family has also filed a civil suit against Dago and the mobile rental company Car2Go.
Reinoso was a student at Miami Dade College and hoped to enter law enforcement.
"She was very family oriented, had an incredible heart and always had a smile on her face," her mother, Ivania Reinoso, told the Herald.
Irina Reinoso, 22, was killed in the August 2013 crash.
Drunks behind the wheel is never a good thing.
Drunk and texting = double whammy.
Drunk and texting.
Enough said. Ruined her life, killed her friend...for what? For what?
Texting, a great boon to person kind, but to us it while driving ... how stupid.
Yes, the BOYFRIEND killed her. Must be an Ebola voter, between the age and thinking everything is someone else’s doing.
“She had more than double the legal blood alcohol content limit for driving two hours after the crash”.....
Years ago I saw a DUI lawyer talk about that as a defense. Having that much alcohol in your blood two hours after the crash does not mean you were drunk when the crash happened.
He’d get people off who refused to blow in the machine at the scene and had a blood test later. His claim was it takes a while for the alcohol to get into the blood.
I was behind a woman today who was texting at every traffic light. Whenever it changed I’d have to blow the horn. The third time she looked in her rearview mirror and raised her hands up as if to say “What?” I hate texters and I cut them no slack.
I confess to being an idiot last week. House hunting and staring at the GPS on the phone caused me to almost blow a stop sign.
But humans are not computers. You have to consciously decide to NOT look at the phone while you drive.
Just pull over.
Probably educational courses on the subject in school like we used to have about the dangers of casual sex (boy was that a lifetime ago!) might help
The most erratic drivers are those that are texting. I can always tell, they drive much slower than the flow of traffic and have no clue when a light changes.
What the hell is so important that it can’t wait until they get home or in a parking lot or roadside stop to respond?
What did we do before texting ... we survived.
Amen!
What did we do before cell phones ... we survived.
Cute girl, now her life is ruined. Should have left the texting to her friend.
When I go out of town, I turn my phone off. No one needs to get in touch with me while I am driving. Then if I am at a long red light, I check it.
smart. Experiments show the hit we get from an instant message affects the same part of the brain as heroin and food. scary stuff.
Oh c’mon! We all know Dagos can’t drive!
Damn, my ancient Verizon Motorola Razr takes over a minute from a cold start to ready, and a good while after that before any indication I have any messages. No way I could use a time out at a red light to check in. Dig the phone out and hit "on" best I could do.
These kind of crashes will keep happening until we get serious about drunk driving penalties.
And driving a rented SMART car. Triple whammy.
I was happy to see at least one post about the driver being drunk as opposed to all the others seemingly focused on her texting. I read the story and I don’t think it stated she was texting at the moment of the collision, but everyone else on this thread seems transfixed by the drunk driver’s phone habits.
Maimi trash alert.....
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