A Tarrant County mother who lost two of her children in a violent highway crash is turning that loss into a blunt warning for anyone who even thinks about picking up a phone behind the wheel. Dee Davila‑Estelle says a distracted driver slammed into the back of her family’s vehicle on I‑35 near Texas Motor Speedway, killing her children Alex and Gabby and injuring several other relatives. Now she and her family are working with state safety officials and advocacy partners in an effort to keep other families from living the same nightmare.
Davila‑Estelle told KHOU the driver who hit them was texting and moving at more than 65 miles per hour before the rear‑end collision pushed their car roughly 360 feet down the road. Alex and Gabby were killed, she said. Davila‑Estelle suffered multiple rib fractures, and other family members, including Kevin and Zach, were left with injuries that ranged from broken ribs and a back injury to more minor wounds. Her message to drivers is simple and direct: put everything down, because, she said, “it’s not worth a life.”
State data show the scale of the problem
According to TxDOT, distracted driving factored into more than 91,000 crashes and roughly 370 deaths in the most recent year of available data. The agency pulls those numbers from the Texas Peace Officer’s Crash Report (CR‑3) and uses them to guide its outreach in April. Officials say the figures underline how even a brief glance away from the road can change lives forever.
From grief to advocacy
Davila‑Estelle has also carried her family’s story into the policy arena. Her name appears on witness lists for transportation bills in the Texas Legislature, according to Texas Legislature records. Advocates say survivors who testify at hearings and speak publicly help keep roadway safety issues in front of lawmakers and can spur more enforcement, education and community outreach. For Davila‑Estelle, showing up in those rooms is part of trying to turn private grief into public change.
TxDOT’s statewide push during April
TxDOT is carrying its Talk. Text. Crash. campaign across the state with an interactive simulator, billboards and media spots meant to show how quickly attention can slip behind the wheel. The department urges drivers to keep hands on the wheel, eyes on the road and to pull over safely before sending a text or making a call. Officials say the traveling exhibit and statewide messaging are designed to give drivers a gut‑level sense of how little time it takes for distraction to turn deadly…