Family grateful after surviving mayhem at Egg & I in Las Vegas
Alberta Guzman did not quite believe what she was seeing.
A black car, a 20-year-old Lexus with a teenager behind the wheel, heading straight for her family.
“Watch out!” she said.
They had taken a table on the outdoor patio at the Egg & I, a family-friendly breakfast place on West Sahara Avenue.
Her son Jose, 28, suggested it. He eats there all the time. He loves the food.
With the exception of Jose, who lives in Las Vegas, everyone else was in town for Easter. This was the day after, Monday, April 1, about noon.
The car kept coming. Jose looked over his shoulder. He didn’t see it at first. And then there it was.
He grabbed his nephew, Eric Ortiz, who is 15 and autistic, and tried to get out of the way.
The car plowed ahead. It became airborne. It crashed through bricks, bushes and a fence.
It hit the table where they sat, all seven of them, including three kids.
The impact did many things:
■ It pinned Jose’s right leg against a wall in such a way that he could not move.
■ It shoved the table into Alberta’s belly and pushed her back into the restaurant, her leg broken and bleeding, her ribs fractured.
■ It pinned Eric under the passenger side between the front and back doors, hot metal burning his face, arm and buttocks.
■ It ran over Eric’s mom, Connie Moreno, 40, who was pinned under the rear of the car with many broken bones.
Others were hurt, but no one died.
After the crash, people reacted. Everyone started helping everyone else.
Some patrons chased down the driver, who tried to flee the scene.
Others held victims’ hands.
Some brought water. They talked to the injured, kept them calm.
Connie, under the rear of the car, screamed.
“Help me! Get me out of here!”
Her ankle was shattered, her collarbone broken, a disk in her back fractured. Surgery would come later. For now, all she needed was someone to hold her hand. So that’s what someone did. A stranger comforted her while they waited for rescue.
Alberta, the mom, reassured her family that she was OK. She didn’t tell them her leg was broken or that she was in pain. She wanted to keep everyone calm.
Jose, whose leg was stuck between the car and a beam in the restaurant, talked to Eric. He could see his nephew’s head poking out from under the car. He wasn’t sure whether the boy was OK.
“They’re coming,” he would say. “We’re going to be OK.”
The Fire Department arrived. Over a half-hour they carefully lifted the Lexus from Eric and Connie.
They did their best to keep the family together, too, something everyone appreciates.
“There are a lot of loving people in Las Vegas,” Alberta said Wednesday at the offices of the family’s attorney, Lawrence J. Smith.
Smith said they intend to sue the driver, Gage Lindsey, 18, who was charged with driving under the influence causing substantial bodily harm, felony reckless driving and felony hit-and-run.
Lindsey is suspected of using drugs before the crash, although he passed a sobriety test after he was arrested.
Smith said the family has little money. He doesn’t anticipate that Lindsey had enough insurance to cover the damage, the medical bills, the lost work.
He said he will use the lawsuit to discover what drugs, if any, Lindsey had used.
Jose said the family wanted to meet reporters Wednesday not just to thank all those who helped but to emphasize that mistakes made behind the wheel can hurt real people.
He is not some rich guy who can pay all of the family’s medical bills. He’s a cook at a steakhouse. He has missed a full week of work.
Even so, he did not get angry during the interview. He never referred to Lindsey, but constantly expressed gratitude to everyone who helped, everyone who’s sent good vibes to his family.
“You can focus on the anger, you know? Focus on the pain he gave us, but I think it’s better to focus on the good the community did,” he said.
The family will go home to Bakersfield, Calif., today. Connie is there already, recovering from her injuries, including ankle surgery.
They said they will get together again, soon. Maybe they’ll go out to breakfast again.
They just won’t sit on the patio.
Contact reporter Richard Lake at rlake@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0307.