SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — It was a memorial filled with music, written words of remembrance and painful emotion two years after Diego, his wife Matilde and their two children were hit and killed by an elderly driver in San Francisco’s West Portal neighborhood.
Fabio Benedetto was one of Diego’s best friends.
Having first met in their native Brazil almost 20 years ago, the pair maintained their relationship from their hometown of São Paulo all the way to here in California.
Benedetto says he was in LA with his wife two years ago when he heard about the crash.
“But I was like so shaken by the news that I could not drive. I didn’t want to see cars,” said Benedetto.
RELATED: 80-year-old driver who killed SF family unlikely to face prison time; victims’ family ‘devastated’
The 80-year-old driver who killed a family in San Francisco’s West Portal neighborhood is unlikely to face prison time, and the victims’ family is devastated.
The woman who killed the family will appear in court again Friday.
She is expected to plead no contest to the four felony counts against her and in exchange, get neither prison time nor home detention – but instead probation.
Safe street advocates say the tragedy is another reminder of the work that needs to be done to make San Francisco’s streets safer for pedestrians.
“Speeding is dangerous. Speeding kills. Any driver going more than 40 mph, if they hit a pedestrian, the likeliness of that pedestrian’s survival is very slim,” said Walk San Francisco’s Jodie Medeiros.
If the driver is granted probation, there is a possibility she could get her driver’s license back at some point in the future.
Benedetto says while the family doesn’t want the woman to go to prison, he’s hoping there is some form of accountability.
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“I just think that revenge is not the answer, never. Diego and Matilde, they’re all about love,” he said.
Benedetto says even as time goes on, the pain still remains.
Now, he and others here just hope for some form of resolution.
“I feel their presence. I’ve had dreams of them. It’s weird, it’s weird, but I can feel their energy still around with us,” said Benedetto.
At the driver’s last court appearance, the judge cited her age, lack of criminal record and expressions of remorse as reasons for considering the plea.
The driver has maintained she doesn’t know why her car sped up before the crash.
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