US Army veteran fighting for life after DWI crash involving alleged drunk driver in Melville, Long Island
A family on Long Island is praying for a U.S. Army veteran's recovery after police say a drunk driver allegedly crashed into his car head-on the day after Christmas.
Eyewitness News spoke with the family of the victim, Nelson Gonzalez, who is still fighting for his life a week later.
Louis Gonzalez has looked up to his big brother Nelson his whole life. Nelson Gonzalez was known as the life of the party, an Army veteran and a hard worker, but Louis' role model could have never prepared him for this.
"Now we're stuck in this position that we, we have to decide to pull the plug, or what?" Louis Gonzalez said. "Because there's not much you can do. He's not functioning. He's brain dead."
"The way he looked -- I felt like just -- if the guy was in front of me right now that hit him -- he wouldn't be alive either," said the victim's sister-in-law, Nitsa Gonzalez. "That's how I felt. He had no sympathy for me. He shouldn't have been driving."
Nelson Gonzalez was driving home from work last Friday night at around 10 p.m., making a turn from Pinelawn Road onto Express Drive South in Melville when he was hit head-on by a Mazda CX-7. Police say the man behind the wheel, 59-year-old John Ankelman, was driving drunk.
"My older brother paid the price for his mistake. It's not even a mistake," Louis Gonzalez said. "He should have not been driving that car. How many more will it take? This is crazy. My brother isn't here anymore, you know?"
Nelson Gonzalez is no longer the same 63-year-old filled with vitality who had a day job and two nighttime security jobs after nearly 20 years in the Army and National Guard. He's now in a medically-induced coma, and the prognosis is bleak. Doctors say his neck injuries are so severe that not enough oxygen is getting to the brain.
"All I hear is about crashes with drunk drivers, crashes with drunk drivers," Nitsa Gonzalez said. "When is it going to stop? I didn't expect it to hit home like this."
The driver who did this has been hit with only a DWI so far, but the Gonzalez family wants the charges upgraded, and stricter drunk driving enforcement.
A GoFundMe page has been started to help Nelson Gonzalez's family with medical bills and expenses.
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