LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — The 100 Deadliest Days of summer started. It's thee period between Memorial Day and Labor Day when the number of deadly crashes spike nationwide.
KTNV's Abel Garcia spoke with a woman who was left a widow after her husband died in a crash as a result of a driver who was under the influence.
"It's been a total process," said Jessica Tabares. "An adjustment accepting he isn't here anymore."
It was the night that changed Tabares's life forever.
She says she had just spent several hours making memories with her husband, family and friend's not knowing it would be the last time they would be together.
"I told my husband I'm very tired," she said. "We have been working all day that Saturday, I saw us getting into the 215 and I fell asleep."
It was February 5 around 2 a.m., Nevada State Police said a wrong-way driver was traveling southbound on 215 near Town Center Drive in the northbound lanes.
Tabares and her husband were traveling northbound heading home.
The driver crashed head on into the truck Tabares and her husband were in. The driver who hit them died on impact.
"I wake up and I don't see him anymore and I'm starting to feel like I can't breathe, I start to gasp for air, and I realize that I'm in a car accident, and when I turned around to look for him," she said.
With the little strength she had, Jessica says she got up and began looking for her husband, Jose, who she calls Pepe.
"Pepe, Pepe, Pepe, where are you? I'm screaming and I'm gasping for air and I can't fathom what was happening at the moment," she said.
She was taken to the hospital where doctors told her that her arm was shattered, her back destroyed and her vital organs displaced.
She says it's a miracle she survived, but she had a terrible feeling her husband did not.
"I overhear two nurses talking about it, about the accident and how bad they felt for me and that is when I realized that he had been gone," she said.
From mourning her husband's death to now knowing if she would ever walk again, Tabares says she went into survival mode.
She underwent many surgeries and after about two weeks, she started to regain her strength. A week after, she was ready to go home to be there for her two sons.
Now, four months later Tabares says whole her health is improving, the pain of losing her husband will never go away.
"He was not only my husband, he was my life partner, my business partner my other half, he was everything for me and for my kids, for us to adjust its been very challenging," she said.
Tabares found out through the Nevada State Police toxicology report that the person who crashed into them was under the influence of cocaine, alcohol and marijuana.
During the 100 Deadliest Days on our nations roads, she has a message for everyone.
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"Don't get behind the wheel even if you've only had one drink because you never know what can happen and how it can impact people's lives in a negative way just because of you being irresponsible," she said.
Jessica and her husband owned a PR company here in Las Vegas and now, Jessica and her two boys have taken over the company and continue to help many organizations across the valley.
