A cemetery on San Antonio’s west side was damaged over the weekend after a vehicle crashed into its fence.
Neighbors who live near the San Fernando II Cemetery say incidents like this are not unusual. They say drivers have repeatedly crashed into different sections of the cemetery’s fence, with some crashes damaging tombstones and gravesites.
“It’s part of the community and, you know, a lot of our family members are buried there,” one neighbor said.
For generations, San Fernando II Cemetery has served as a final resting place for families living near Castroville and Cupples roads.
Ozzy Diaz, who lives near the cemetery, said he has watched the damage happen repeatedly.
“Every time the fences get fixed up, another spot — usually on the sides — even that gets damaged again,” Diaz said. “It saddens a lot of us in the community that they have to keep fixing it all the time, only for it to just get damaged again.”
Over the weekend, a vehicle crashed into the cemetery fence along Cupples Road.
A neighbor said she believes speeding or distracted driving could be contributing to the repeated crashes.
“I don’t know if it’s because they go too fast or there’s young kids that are driving and not paying attention because they’re on the phone,” she said. “I don’t know what it is.”
For families with loved ones buried near the fence, neighbors say the damage can also create a financial burden.
“We have to pay a lot to be buried there because you have to pay for the piece of land, and the tombstones are very expensive,” the woman said.
She said some families may not be able to afford repairs if a grave or tombstone is damaged.
“Who knows how they’re going to be if they’re going to be rebuilt, because the family sometimes they don’t have that kind of money to redo it,” she said.
The neighbor said she worries a future crash could damage a grave belonging to one of her own family members.
“I am worried because they’re buried not too, not too far from the fence,” she said.
She also said speeding drivers are a concern beyond the cemetery, particularly in a neighborhood where children and older residents spend time outside.
Diaz said he does not want repeated crashes to become something the community simply accepts.
“I just fear that it will be such a constant thing that people just accept the fact it’s just going to keep getting damaged,” Diaz said. “And, yeah, I don’t want that to happen because, again, this cemetery has been here for so long.”
KENS 5 reached out to the Archdiocese of San Antonio, which manages the Catholic cemetery, for comment about the repeated damage and weekend crash. The station did not receive a response by publication.