Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
A drive to save lives
He was locked up after fatal DUI; now he’s on a mission
Even after all these years, William Altier still gets nervous when he speaks to students and teachers about being the first man in Palm Beach County to be convicted of vehicular homicide in the death of a fetus.
Altier, 37, of Boca Raton, served prison time for a DUI head-on collision in 2003 that killed a woman’s unborn son and her mother. On Friday, he spoke in front of a crowd of driver’s education teachers during a conference on driver safety.
“I can’t, obviously, erase what happened,” he told the crowd. “But I can bring awareness.”
Nearly 14 years ago, on a balmy evening in midAugust, Altier sped through the intersection of Pal-
metto Park Road and Federal Highway in Boca Raton and crashed his silver Porsche 911 Turbo into a sedan driven by Marie Fabiano, 23.
Fabiano, who was pregnant, was going to get ice cream with her mother, Teresa Fabiano, who died at the scene. Marie Fabiano survived, but lost her unborn child, Valente Rose Fabiano.
Altier said he had two drinks that night: a vodka on the rocks and part of his girlfriend’s unfinished martini.
According to Altier’s arrest report, more than an hour after the crash his blood-alcohol level was .10. The legal intoxication limit is .08.
As part of an agreement, Altier accepted responsibility for his role in the crash, also pleading guilty to DUI manslaughter and DUI causing serious bodily injury. Had he gone to trial and been convicted, he could have faced more time in prison.
“I took a plea because I was scared to death,” he said.
He was sentenced to five years in prison. Released in 2011, he is in the middle of serving his 10-year probation sentence. He also permanently lost his driver’s license.
These days he carries his prison ID with him to show students when he visits their classrooms, he said. He wants them to see the consequences their actions can have when they get behind the wheel, he said.
He still thinks about the accident, every day, on his way to work when he passes through the very same intersection, often on his bike, he said.
“There’s a smell from the airbags that you will never forget,” he said. “These are not things you can undo.”
As a young adult from an affluent family driving too fast in a sports car, Altier said he fit the stereotype of a spoiled brat, but he wants his victims to know that’s not who he is today.
“The person that got into a car accident at 23 years old and the person you see now are two totally different people,” he said. “This is why I’m doing what I’m doing, when I have to approach the victims again, they can see me as a different person.”
Students have all kinds of questions for Altier, especially about prison, said Tara Applebaum, executive director of Dori Saves Lives, a group that hosted the Florida Driver Education Conference at The Department of Safe Schools in Boca Raton.
“We’ve been in a lot of schools with Will and they really respond with him,” she said. “And I really truly think it makes a difference.”