In every photo on the Balistreri family’s wall, you see a smiling Ivana and her daughter, Lilly, a toddler who hadn’t yet turned 2.
Now, the family is speaking out about the fiery December crash on Highway 87 in San Jose that took their lives, hoping to share their grief and serve as a cautionary tale for the community.
The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office has filed two counts of murder against the driver who struck them, Zachary Chernicky. Prosecutors allege he was driving more than 100 mph when he hit the family’s vehicle. An attorney representing the family said data from Chernicky’s car shows he had been driving more than 140 mph at times.
The fatal collision occurred on Dec. 2 of last year. Ivana, Lilly, and Ivana’s fiancé, Zachary Martins, were on Highway 87 when traffic came to a halt. Martins was behind the wheel.
“We were at a full stop,” Martins told NBC Bay Area. “I looked in my rearview mirror and I literally thought, is he gonna stop?”
Chernicky did not stop. NBC Bay Area reviewed previously unreleased video of the incident. Following the high-speed impact, Martins jumped out of the burning car, desperately trying to save his fiancée and daughter.
“Yeah, it’s blurry and vivid at the same time,” Martins said of his rescue attempts. “I was concussed and running off adrenaline.”
Ivana and Lilly died inside the burning vehicle.
The pain remains raw for the victims’ extended family.
“They were rays of sunshine,” said Francesca Alexander, Ivana’s sister. “Ivana did not have a mean bone in her body. She was always very kind, very open.”
Ivana’s mother, Benedettea Balistreri, mourned the loss of her granddaughter. “My little Lilly,” she said. “She was my sunshine.”
Aurelio Balistreri, Ivana’s father, said the crash shattered their entire family.
“He destroyed my life, my kids’ life, my wife’s life,” he said through tears. “Every morning I get up out of bed thinking about Zach not having his babies. That’s on my mind every day.”
For Rosie Balisteri, Ivana’s sister, navigating the grief requires balancing overwhelming emotions just to make it through the day.
“It’s hard,” she said. “Trying to hear her in my mind to go work out, go on a run or do something. But I just want to lie in bed and not do anything, so it’s just trying to find a balance and trying to keep her memory.”
When asked about the possibility of forgiveness for the man accused of killing his family, Martins was resolute.
“When we saw him in the courthouse, there was the tiniest, little microscopic piece of me that felt slightly bad for him cause I know prison is hell; it’s probably worse than death,” Martins said. “But then I got home and I realized I’m in [expletive] prison every day…I don’t think I ever will be [ready to forgive].”
Benedettea echoed the desire for strict accountability.
“I just want justice,” she said. “I just want the person responsible to spend the rest of his life in prison and think about what he did.”
Through their heartbreak, the family is sharing their story with a singular hope: preventing another tragedy.
“We just really want to bring attention to it, to make a plea to the community to slow down and think about getting home safe, the next person getting home safe, so we don’t have to go through something like this,” Alexander said.
NBC Bay Area reached out to Chernicky and his attorney for comment but did not hear back.