EVERYTHING CHANGED
After a horrific crash, 23-year-old Robert Quintana is dead and 17-year-old cheerleader Vanessa Mendoza is clinging to life
It was clear and dry on Thanksgiving Day when two families’ lives were changed forever due to a violent collision north of Downtown Albuquerque.
Left dead at the scene was Robert Quintana, who worked as a security guard and would have turned 23 this month.
Still hospitalized in a coma and fighting for her life is Vanessa Mendoza, 17, a popular athlete and bright student at Albuquerque High School.
“It’s been really, really hard,” said Vanessa’s mother, Yesenia Mendoza, during an emotional phone conversation. “I have good days and bad days, but I’m there every day talking to my daughter and telling her to get better and wake up. We think she can hear us because when we talk to her she tears up.”
The tragic event occurred about 12:30 p.m. Vanessa was driving her green 1999 Ford west on Odelia, while Quintana was driving his 2004 yellow Pontiac north on Broadway. They collided in the intersection. According to an Albuquerque police accident report, witnesses told officers at the scene that the yellow car was speeding and ran a red light.
APD spokesman Fred Duran stressed that the accident investigation is ongoing and they are still waiting for the results of toxicology tests on both drivers, as is standard procedure in acci-
dents involving injury or death.
Quintana’s aunt, Tanya Esquibel of Albuquerque, said Thursday that her nephew was buried in his hometown of Grants. He had been a star athlete in high school in Grants and played football, baseball and basketball.
“He was just a really bright young man, wasn’t into gangs or drugs or anything like that. He always had this beautiful smile and was the friendliest person. He would think of others before himself and would give people the shirt off his back.”
Quintana moved to Albuquerque a year or two ago, she said, got a job as a security guard and intended to go to college.
Members of Quintana’s immediate family spoke to Vanessa Mendoza’s mother on the phone, she said, although she had no details about those conversations.
“I truly pray for them everyday,” Esquibel said. “We know how hard it is to lose a loved one and we pray she (Vanessa) gets better and everything turns out right for her.”
On a GoFundMe page established to raise money for Quintana’s funeral expenses, friend Sophia Hamed Grayeb wrote: “Robert Quintana is loved by so many people. His friends, his family and everyone he came across too. He always put his family and friends first, made sure they had everything they needed before worrying about himself.”
‘We just have to wait’
Yesenia Mendoza’s ex-husband and Vanessa’s father, Josue Ruiz, immediately came from El Paso after learning of the accident and has been sleeping in the hospital at his daughter’s side since then. He, too, agrees that Vanessa knows they are present. “I think she responds to us,” he said.
“The doctors say we just have to wait. We don’t know exactly what will happen or when she will wake up. She is stable, but the same, and I will stay as long as I need to — every day for 24 hours if that’s what it takes.”
Vanessa has already undergone a number of surgeries. She has multiple broken bones, a spinal injury and a brain injury, her mother said.
The doctors, however, are not certain of Vanessa’s level of awareness, Mendoza said. “They tell us we have to take it hour by hour and day by day, and that she has a 50-50 chance of waking up. But we’re positive that will happen because she’s tough, she’s a fighter and she doesn’t take no for an answer.”
Vanessa is a member of the Albuquerque High School cheerleading squad. “The whole team is definitely devastated and working to keep it together and stay strong for her,” said Candace Sanchez, the head cheer coach. Sanchez has gone to the hospital daily to visit Vanessa and check on members of her family, she said. Vanessa’s brother, Luis, 19, is a senior at the school, and a younger sister, Brianda, 13, is an APS middle school student.
Sanchez described Vanessa as “sassy, sarcastic, funny, kind, compassionate, a great student with a high GPA, and a role model among her team, especially to the other young ladies.”
Cheerleading squad mate Jaline Marquez, 17, said she and the other team members are “all pretty much heartbroken.” The team “is like family and we’re with each other all the time.”
Another teammate, Dianna Gallegos, 14, said, “They told us about Vanessa at a practice and we circled up and were hugging each other and some of us were crying.” Vanessa, she said, “just walks into a room and makes people smile, and she has an attitude, not in a bad way, but you see her and you know she’s confident.”
“I just want to say thank you to everybody for all their help and all their praying and all their support,” said Yesenia Mendoza. “And I want to send my condolences to the other family because they’re grieving, too, and they didn’t deserve to lose him.”
Vanessa, she added, “is fighting hard and I just tell her, ‘You’re the strongest one and you will come out of this.’ ”