‘A long road ahead.’ GoFundMe launched for Palmetto victim in fatal crash
.jpg "A Palmetto woman’s family launched a GoFundMe campaign to cover medical bills after an alleged drunk driver struck her vehicle early Sunday morning, hospitalizing her and killing her unborn child.")
The mother of a pregnant woman critically injured in a wrong-way DUI crash on the DeSoto Bridge is asking for help as her daughter faces a long recovery.
Ka’Leah Tracey-Marie Spells, 28, was eight months pregnant when police say a wrong-way driver hit her head-on early Sunday morning. The crash killed her unborn child and left her hospitalized in critical condition with multiple broken bones, according to her mother, Tracey Beasley.
Beasley launched an online fundraiser to help cover medical expenses and support her daughter’s recovery.
As of Thursday afternoon, the GoFundMe had raised a little over $7,000 toward its $12,000 goal.
Beasley wrote on the fundraiser page that her daughter suffered several broken bones,had to be resuscitated three times and has undergone multiple surgeries as a result of the accident. She said doctors have kept Spells heavily sedated and that she does not yet know her unborn child did not survive.
“She has a long road ahead,” Beasley wrote about her daughter’s recovery.
The Palmetto Police Department says Laurentino Serrano-Juarez, 31, of Bradenton, drove a GMC SUV south in the northbound lanes when he crashed into the front of Spells’ sedan at around 4:26 a.m. According to her mother, Spells was on her way home from her job in Sarasota at the time.
When officers arrived at the scene, they said Serrano-Juarez was standing next to the driver’s door of his car before he laid down in the middle of the road and passed out.
Police said Serrano-Juarez was the only person in his vehicle. There were empty Corona beer bottles inside, including one on the front passenger floorboard and “several” in the back seat floorboard, according to an arrest report.
Paramedics brought both drivers to local hospitals.
Doctors performed an emergency C-section on Spells in an effort to save her unborn child, but the baby died from injuries caused by the crash, according to an arrest report.
An officer wrote in an arrest report that he could smell alcohol on Serrano-Juarez’s breath when talking with him at the hospital.
Police have charged Serrano-Juarez with DUI manslaughter, DUI with serious bodily injury to another, DUI property damage and driving without a valid license, according to the sheriff’s office website. He is being held on $575,000 bond at the Manatee County Jail.
According to court records, this isn’t the first criminal traffic offense Serrano-Juarez has faced. In October, he was cited for failing to move over for a parked emergency vehicle and for driving without a valid license. He later pleaded no contest to the license charge. The judge withheld adjudication, meaning the case did not result in a formal conviction. He paid fines in both cases.
