31 December 2022

On New Year's Eve, remember Jacqueline Saburido


Early on Sunday morning September 19, 1999, Jacqui - then 20 years old - and four friends were on their way home from a birthday party. Reggie Stephey, an 18-year-old high school student, was on his way home from drinking beer with some buddies. On a dark road on the outskirts of Austin, Texas, Reggie's SUV veered into the Oldsmobile carrying Jacqui and the others. Two passengers in the car were killed at the scene and two were rescued.
Within minutes, the car caught fire. Jacqui was pinned in the front seat on the passenger side. She was burned over 60% of her body; no one thought she could survive. But Jacqui lived. Her hands were so badly burned that all of her fingers had to be amputated. She lost her hair, her ears, her nose, her left eyelid and much of her vision. She has had more than 50 operations* since the crash.
* Update - now more than 120 operations.

DON'T DRINK AND DRIVE. 

Update April 2019:
Jacqui Saburido, the woman whose disfigured face became a symbol of the dangers of drunk driving after she suffered horrific burns in a 1999 crash, has died, according to the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission. She died from cancer in Guatemala, according to CNN affiliate KXAN. She was 40...

After the crash, Saburido became an advocate for the Texas Department of Transportation's anti-drunk-driving campaign, making numerous school appearances and using her startling appearance to drive home the dangers of driving under the influence. She also appeared on Oprah Winfrey's show twice. 
 
"Even if it means sitting here in front of a camera with no ears, no nose, no eyebrows, no hair, I'll do this a thousand times if it will help someone make a wise decision," Saburido said during one of her many speaking engagements after the accident.
 
"This is part of my mission here on the Earth," she added in a video on the Faces of Drunk Driving site. "If this face and this body can help others, then why not?"
Recent photo, and news video, at CNN.

Reposted because the message is still relevant.  Do not drink and drive.  Ever. 

34 comments:

  1. Thanks for posting this reminder. I saw Jacqui in person at an Oprah taping about 3 years ago and was in tears. I still break into tears everytime I see her story. She is an amazingly beautiful woman inside and out. I have utmost respect for her and the courage she has to be an advocate against drunk driving. - Katya , Chicago, IL

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  2. I'm soo sad for Jacqui, in the same time I'm happy that I'm a Muslim in an Arabic Muslim country "Qatar" doesn't allow people to have alcohol at all, based on our Islamic religion and Arabian tradition, I'm 29 years old and never heard about such accident, and I hope Jacqui to survive not only in her look, but must be an advocate against drunk driving.
    -Ghassan, Doha, Qatar

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    1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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    2. She did what you suggested:

      "This is part of my mission here on the Earth," she added in a video on the Faces of Drunk Driving site. "If this face and this body can help others, then why not?"

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  3. Bader -

    I'm thrilled that you are 29 years old and have never heard of a drunk driving accident. That is definitely a great thing.

    However, it is very well known that in certain Muslim countries, numerous women wind up looking like Jacqui from having acid thrown in their face or having kerosene or other substance thrown over them just before a match is thrown on their clothing - all because their husband or father believed they are no longer "pure" or they have become "too Western," whatever that means. Their suffering is heart-wrenching - every bit as devastating as what happened to Jacqui.

    Sin, lack of responsibility, and tragedy happen in all cultures and religions, sometimes in very different ways. It would be utterly ridiculous for me to say "I'm glad I'm Christian and live in America because we don't tolerate men throwing acid in a woman's face" or what have you because a clear-eyed look at our culture shows our flaws.

    I think that is true of every culture and religion.

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  4. I've read Jacqui's story and my heart is always so sad when I see her. When reading of face transplants happening, I've often wondered if she could be helped in such a way.

    What a brave, beautiful soul she is.

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  5. It breaks the heart to see this, people are dumb, cruel and stupid. The universe is crueler, we all march towards entropy.

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  6. I would kill myself if this happened to me.

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    Replies
    1. Jacqui had a more enlightened view:

      "This is part of my mission here on the Earth," she added in a video on the Faces of Drunk Driving site. "If this face and this body can help others, then why not?"

      Delete
  7. Holy bajesus. Beyond sobering.
    Time to get rid of the automobile system itself.
    Only 30% of the lethal wrecks are alcohol related. Steel and glass capsules hurtling past each other at 100 mph. A small flip of the wrist or lapse of concentration and her catastrophe is the result!

    This plague of cars is going to kill all of us eventually. Fighting over the fuel, blacktopping over the landscape, burning the ozone, melting the glaciers, etc. are all caused by these effing cars. Then when the accident happens, we look for someone to blame. It's his fault: he twitched! Or, she was too old! Or, his reflexes sucked! Fell asleep! Dumb sommabitch just shot off the road into a tree, twinked on Ambien!
    Carve a car on mankind's tombstone.

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  8. My father was killed in 1975 by a drunk driver. I was 14 years old. Thank goodness the drunk driver did not kill anyone else. He flipped the car and only killed himself.

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  9. N. Normal -- What transportation system do you recommend as a replacement of the automobile system?

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  10. I sympathize with Jacqui, but don't think this blog is the place for shock photos. Most commenters sound smart enough to trust statistics and numbers; we don't need to be shocked into compliance. Just my $0.02.

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  11. Easy one, anonymous.

    Mag-lev vacuum tubes. Just like at the bank. Need shoes? Ziiip. Right to your room. Too small? Ziiiip. Right back. Pizza, broccoli sprouts, apples - ziiiip. Yeah! On it! Need to go to Cleveland? Punch in the coordinates and ziiiiiiiiiip! Off you go. GET RID OF THIS CAR PLAGUE please....Here, this might do it...
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGlh6mN68WA&feature=related
    Maybe somebody could talk this Kim Jong Un into starting it up in North Korea - a clean slate there for infrastructure.
    Yeah, somebody probably would fill one with ammonium nitrate or ricin and send it off, and we'd find out there's no sure solution. But I for one am sick of cars.

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  12. Hardly easy, N. Normal

    Maglev vacuum tubes would require extensive tunneling and construction of the tubes. Not currently tenable as a replacement for cars for the existing world's population.

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  13. why are they called accidents when there is a reason, stupidity, that they happen?

    I feel for Jacqui.. but I also feel sorry for the idiot who has to live with the fact that he killed someone and hurt someone else every day for the rest of his life.

    No sympathy, mind you. You reap what you sew.

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  14. I think he should have been sentenced to death or lufe sentence with a larger fine. Maybe then people will take it seriously like how it ought to be...

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  15. Thank you for posting. You are my first persona blogger and still among my favourite.

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  16. Self driving cars, I'm looking forward to them. So no one will have to take my license away from me when I'm too old to drive.

    Of course, we'll find another way to kill and maim each other.

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  17. While we all sympathize greatly with the victims of automobile crashes, many Americans do not push for heavily punitive jail terms for drunk drivers. Why not? Because many of us can admit to ourselves that we, too, have driven at least once in an impaired condition, whether it was due to alcohol or cold medication or in a distracted state of mind.... And there but by the grace of God, go I.

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    Replies
    1. My friend's dad was killed by a drink driver. I would never ever ever drive after drinking. There is no excuse.

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  18. Poor, poor girl. I have sat here just thinking about when I was 20, then imagining Jacqueline when she was 20. Life was never going to be the same for her again. You go to a party, completely innocent and having a great time, you jump in the car with your friends, then broken glass, crushing steel then flames as you struggle to escape but feel your numb legs awkwardly bent. You feel heat growing and your skin tightening, people around you in safety screaming in panic, the searing heat licking your face, scorching your hair and boiling your eyeballs. I hope most people can only imagine that, but Jacqueline can't, she lived it, she felt it, she remembers it. If you ever see this Jacqueline, for what little comfort it is, I for one can understand some of the things that haunt you; though not the same issues in the same way, but the lament of physical pain and the infinite mansion of torture where you reside.I know the what ifs will never go away and I hope someone is there to give you strength when yours ebbs, we all get tired sometimes. Hold on, medicine is progressing exponentially, follow developments that could help you on the net. I really feel for you Jacqueline, stay well, you're tough. :)

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  19. I saw a Youtube video on this poor girl. It was very hard to watch. What makes it really difficult is how she went from beautiful to a burned victim. I'm not sure why I feel so bad on the inside. This probably happens to so many other people. But the fact that she was beautiful made it difficult to watch. It puts a face on drunk driving in my opinion. It's just not worth it. And her dad is amazing for helping her to the extent he does. Truly amazing dad right there.

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  20. Obviously, she is amazingly courageous and gives strength to all of us who usually face only minor, practical difficulties. I agree with Mr Gibbon's suggestion about the miracles of Medicine and Technology and, from this perspective, my humble suggestion would be that she should consider face transplant.

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    1. I can't speak with any authority on this, but I would bet that it is very difficult to graft onto a burn scar because the tissue is so poorly vascularized.

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    2. Probably, your worry about the difficulty of a face transplant in the specific case is correct; yet, she could receive advice from the Medical Experts (I think she had contacted in the past the British Plastic & Reconstructive Surgeon, Professor Peter Butler). Also, there exists the case of Fireman Patrick Hardison in the United States of America who had been disfigured in a fire many years ago but received a successful face transplant in 2015.

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  21. Elevated monorails. Disney knew it 60 years ago. http://www.transfuture.net

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  22. Jerry in and out of DallasJanuary 2, 2017 at 9:10 AM

    Any updates? On either the victim or the offender?

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  23. There are actually times when it is more safe to go over the max speed limit. Vehicle merging on your right and a virtual wall of traffic to the left? Better to speed up and get left than go the speed limit and hope for the best or slow down.

    Same for getting past a truck's blind spot. I'm going to go as fast as safely possible.

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  24. One full hour in every driver training program, telling this story, complete with visual aids.

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