The mother of a 4-month-old killed in a tragic crash on Bluffton Parkway has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against her daughter’s caregiver and the driver, who in the hours after the May 2024 collision was charged with a felony count of driving under the influence and failing to properly restrain the infant passenger.
Bluffton man Gregorio Hernandez-Castillo, 31, was driving a 2011 Toyota RAV4 east on Bluffton Parkway near Buck Island Road when the car veered off the right side of the street, according to the South Carolina Highway Patrol. The driver overcorrected, causing the SUV to strike a tree in the median the night of May 12.
Starling Guzman, the infant from Allendale, S.C., was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash. The driver was uninjured and another passenger in the vehicle was hospitalized in Savannah.
Hernandez-Castillo was arrested for DUI at the scene by SCHP troopers, who also charged him for an open container of alcohol in the vehicle, driving without a license and child endangerment. He was denied bond and remained in custody at the Beaufort County jail as of Friday afternoon.