Suspected drunken driving crash kills Merced grandmother of 10

A Merced man remained hospitalized Thursday with major injuries, a day after a deadly head-on collision in which officers have said he was driving drunk, the California Highway Patrol reported.

The victim, Elena Maciel-Garcia, 67, of Merced, died around 7:30 p.m. Wednesday following a head-on collision with a Chevrolet Tahoe that had been reported traveling “erratically” and “recklessly” moments before the crash, the California Highway Patrol reported.

Her identity was confirmed by the Merced County Coroner’s Office.

The driver of the Tahoe, 29-year-old Victor Garcia Santos of Merced, was unconscious when emergency responders pulled him from the wreckage, authorities told the Sun-Star. He was flown to a Modesto hospital with unspecified major injuries.

“Once he is released from the hospital, our officers will be booking him into the county jail,” CHP spokesman Officer Moises Onsurez told the Sun-Star. Garcia-Santos is scheduled for surgery this morning.

The crash was reported on Highway 140 near Central Avenue, southwest of Atwater, Onsurez said in a telephone interview.

“We received at least one call of a Chevy Tahoe driving erratically and the crash occurred at almost the same time that the call came in,” Onsurez said.

He was traveling west on Highway 140 and collided head-on with a Toyota Corolla, Onsurez said.

Merced County Sheriff Vern Warnke was in the area and first to arrive on scene. Warnke said the male driver was believed to have been driving at 100 mph at the time of the crash.

“His speedometer was pegged at 100 mph when they pulled him out,” Warnke told the Sun-Star in a telephone interview. The sheriff said the Tahoe rolled multiple times after the crash.

Highway 140 near Central Avenue was closed until around 9 p.m. while officers investigated the crash and the scene was cleared.

Maciel-Garcia’s grandson, Jaime Arias, described his grandmother as “the rock of our family” and “an angel.”

“She was coming from her house to visit her kids and grandchildren here in Merced,” Arias told the Sun-Star, his voice choked with emotion. “We’re a really strong family, we’re all together today, but we need her. We need her. She was our rock.”

Maciel Garcia worked for more than 10 years at Cebro Frozen Food in Newman, packing food.

“Our grandmother was an amazing person, she loved everyone in our family and called her grandchildren daily, “just to hear our voices,” Arias said. “She loved to work and when she wasn’t working she was visiting her grandchildren. She loved to collect things, she spent her money buying baskets and seeds to plant in her beautiful garden.”

She is survived by her husband, Jose Manuel Arias Guerra, to whom she was married for nearly 50 years, as well as three children and 10 grandchildren, family members said.

Garcia Santos has at least one prior DUI conviction and was driving on a suspended license, Onsurez told the Sun-Star.

Garcia Santos was last arrested Feb. 7 in Merced County on suspicion of drunken driving and driving on a suspended license, according to Merced County jail records.

Details of the prior conviction and most recent arrest were not available Thursday.

News of Garcia Santos’ prior arrests angered Maciel-Garcia’s family.

“For him to have done this twice before and to have learned nothing – and then to take away someone so precious to us; so important to us; it’s just incredible,” Arias told the Sun-Star. “Something has to be done about that.”

This story was originally published March 30, 2016 at 8:24 PM with the headline "Suspected drunken driving crash kills Merced grandmother of 10."