In every photo on the Balistreri family\u2019s wall, you see a smiling Ivana and her daughter, Lilly, a toddler who hadn\u2019t yet turned 2.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The Santa Clara County District Attorney\u2019s 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\u2019s car shows he had been driving more than 140 mph at times.<\/p>\n
The fatal collision occurred on Dec. 2 of last year. Ivana, Lilly, and Ivana’s fianc\u00e9, Zachary Martins, were on Highway 87 when traffic came to a halt. Martins was behind the wheel.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were at a full stop,\u201d Martins told NBC Bay Area. \u201cI looked in my rearview mirror and I literally thought, is he gonna stop?\u201d<\/p>\n
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 fianc\u00e9e and daughter.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, it’s blurry and vivid at the same time,\u201d Martins said of his rescue attempts. \u201cI was concussed and running off adrenaline.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ivana and Lilly died inside the burning vehicle.<\/p>\n
The pain remains raw for the victims’ extended family.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were rays of sunshine,\u201d said Francesca Alexander, Ivana\u2019s sister. \u201cIvana did not have a mean bone in her body. She was always very kind, very open.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ivana’s mother, Benedettea Balistreri, mourned the loss of her granddaughter. \u201cMy little Lilly,” she said. “She was my sunshine.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aurelio Balistreri, Ivana\u2019s father, said the crash shattered their entire family.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe 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\u2019s on my mind every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Rosie Balisteri, Ivana’s sister, navigating the grief requires balancing overwhelming emotions just to make it through the day.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’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.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked about the possibility of forgiveness for the man accused of killing his family, Martins was resolute.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen 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\u2019m in [expletive] prison every day\u2026I don\u2019t think I ever will be [ready to forgive].\u201d<\/p>\n
Benedettea echoed the desire for strict accountability.<\/p>\n
\u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Through their heartbreak, the family is sharing their story with a singular hope: preventing another tragedy.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe 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.<\/p>\n
NBC Bay Area reached out to Chernicky and his attorney for comment but did not hear back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In every photo on the Balistreri family\u2019s wall, you see a smiling Ivana and her daughter, Lilly, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":408148,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[88,90,89],"class_list":["post-408147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=408147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408147\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/408148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=408147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=408147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=408147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}