Family of 14-year-old girl killed by suspected drunk driver in Newport Beach calls for DUI law reform

Family members of the teenager who was struck and killed by a suspected drunk driver on the Balboa Peninsula last weekend gathered at the scene of the fatal crash Saturday to demand drunk driving reform.

The Crash occurred last SaturdayOn May 25 at around 6:45 p.m. near E. Balboa Boulevard and Palm Street, Newport Beach police officials said.

Rosenda Elizabeth Smiley, a 14-year-old Rialto resident, was struck and killed in the collision. On Saturday, her family members gathered at the scene of the accident to demand justice.

“My daughter never made it home,” Fillmore Smiley said. “She never made it home because of the behavior and decision of an alleged drunk driver. Because of this, Rose will never go to high school. She will never graduate high school, there will be no 16th birthday, there will be no prom.”

He says he tried to contact his daughter shortly before the fatal incident.

The driver, identified as 30-year-old Joseph Alcazar of Fontana, was charged with premeditated murder and for allegedly driving with a blood alcohol level twice the legal limit. When he was arrested on Saturday, he had already been convicted twice of driving under the influence of alcohol.

According to prosecutors, Smiley and her friends were crossing the street when Alcazar sped around a car that had stopped to let them pass, hitting Alcazar and running over another girl’s foot.

“The decision to drive drunk cost my daughter six or seven decades, decades of her life,” Smiley’s father said.

Smiley’s family believes that Alcazar should definitely receive a prison sentence.