Family killed in crash carried in spirit to Cup
They were linked by soccer and are now remembered in Russia.
DELRAY BEACH — Gilberto Martinez traveled to Russia to watch Argentina and Mexico, two nations to which he has ties, play in the World Cup.
His wife and young children were supposed to be with him. But he lost them in April when a pickup slammed into their minivan in Delray Beach.
He went to Russia anyway. And, symbolically, he brought his family with him.
The April 28 wreck, on Federal Highway south of Linton Boulevard, killed Veronica Raschiotto, 42, of Mexico; her two children, Diego Martinez Raschiotto, 8, and Mia Martinez Raschiotto, 6; and Veronica’s brother, Jorge Claudio Raschiotto, 50, of Argentina.
Martinez, who is Mexican, told the Buenos Aires news outlet Clarin.com for a story that posted
Thursday that he married Argentine-born Veronica in 2004 and when it came to soccer, the couple were fierce supporters of their respective countries.
The intellectual-property attorney had been to five World Cups, and the family of four planned to go to Russia for the 2018 event.
Martinez said he decided to go on the recommendation of his psychologist “to close the only outstanding issue in a beautiful family, to fulfill the dream of the four.”
Martinez stayed back while his family held a reunion with his Argentina-born wife’s 79-year-old mother and three siblings at a home in the Tropic Isle community that they rented for a long weekend getaway.
On April 28, as their minivan waited to turn east into the neighborhood, Delray Beach police have said, it was violently rear-ended by a pickup driven by Paul Streater, 21, of Delray Beach.
Streater told investigators the gas pedal of his 2010 Chevrolet Silverado stuck moments before he began trying to dodge cars. Reaching speeds of up to 100 mph and unable to stop, he said, he weaved in and out of traffic until the crash.
No criminal or traffic charges have been filed. Delray Beach police spokeswoman Dani Moschella said last week the investigation isn’t finished. She’s said in the past that investigators are looking into mechanical failure as a factor.
Scott Smith, Martinez’s South Florida lawyer, has said he does not believe that either alcohol or drugs were factors, and Streater’s attorney, Samuel Halpern, has said his client had not taken any alcohol or drugs at the time of the crash.
Smith said at a May 7 news conference that he plans a lawsuit over “whether this tragic crash was caused by the reckless driving conduct of another, a defective product caused by a design or manufacturing defect or some other cause.”
Smith told The Palm Beach Post on Monday he did not intend to try to track down Martinez in Russia. But he did say, “With tremendous sadness, Gilberto cannot have his family there with him, but he is there to pay tribute to them and they are with him in spirit. It is and will remain a tragedy of epic proportion.”
Veronica Raschiotto was an accountant and comptroller at a Mexico City-based global real-estate firm and gave her time to build homes for the less fortunate, Smith said. Her brother, Jorge, was on the faculty at the National University of Lomas de Zamora in Buenos Aires.
In the two months since the crash, Martinez told Clarin.com, “it was very difficult to call the airline and the hotels and ask them to change the names of the tickets and bookings” for some friends who came instead of his family.
He said none of the itinerary was changed, including traveling by train from Moscow to St. Petersburg “because that’s what Vero wanted.”
And because his son wanted to see Brazilian star Neymar, he said, he’d bought tickets for Friday’s Brazil-Costa Rica match.
A photograph shows him with, around his neck, the photo-ID game passes of his wife and children.
Martinez, who plans to return to Mexico City on Saturday, told the Argentine news outlet he wore T-shirts of Mexico and Argentina that said on the back: “Vero, Diego, Mia, always with me.”
When Mexico upset powerhouse Germany 1-0 on June 17, Father’s Day, “it was very difficult,” Martinez said, sobbing as he spoke by phone to the Argentine reporter. “It was time to come, to live it, to think about them. There were very strong moments, when the goal, the anthem, when you finish the game.”
He said he uploaded video of the winning goal to Facebook and received more than 3,000 comments.
Mexican goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa wrote on social media, referring to Martinez, “This was for your family.”