SAN DIEGO (CBS 8) - The lives of two families are shattered after a suspected DUI related crash in Alpine early Monday morning.
Family members tell News 8 25-year-old Angela August graduated from UCSD in December but was set to walk in the commencement ceremony this coming Saturday. Her mother Dawn was planning a big celebration party.
Dawn told News 8, "We were going to have all our family and friends come - family from out of state - now they're all going to be coming for her funeral instead on Saturday."
The son of 59-year-old Jimmy Arevalo told News 8 he still can't believe he will never hug his father again. Arevalo taught 5th and 6th grades at Dool Elementary School in Calexico, but when school let out last week, he came to San Diego to help his son Bernardo, a student at UCSD.
Bernardo told News 8, "I feel like really bad because he was always putting himself out there, helping people. He came up here, because he knew it was my finals week. He came and he bought me groceries, because he knew I didn't have money, gave me money for school, and picked me up at the library, because he knew I was studying until 2am." Bernardo says that's why his father was heading back to El Centro so late. Jimmy wanted to make sure Bernardo didn't have to walk home from the library alone at such a late hour.
The Superintendent of the Calexico Unified School District, Richard Fragale, told News 8 Arevalo was always helping those in need, encouraged others to do the same, and died practicing what he preached. In a statement, he said, "He has touched the lives of many Calexico Unified School District students. He was a mentor and a colleague who was liked by all. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Arevalo family during their time of grief." Arevalo was employed by the district for 34 years.
The original story is posted below.
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ALPINE (CNS/CBS 8) - A chain-reaction freeway crash involving several vehicles in the East County highlands killed two motorists Monday and left a third jailed on suspicion of drunken driving, authorities reported.
The deadly series of accidents began shortly before 3 a.m., when Angela August, 25, lost control of her eastbound 2009 Toyota Yaris for unknown reasons on Interstate 8, just west of Tavern Road in Alpine, according to the California Highway Patrol and county Medical Examiner's Office.
The compact car traveled up a roadside embankment, then overturned and rolled several times before coming to rest across the far left-hand lane of the freeway, with August pinned inside, CHP public-affairs Officer Brian Pennings said.
A short time later, 59 year-old Jimmy Arevalo of El Centro pulled over to try to assist her, Pennings said. Arevalo was standing or walking on the roadway alongside the damaged Yaris when an eastbound 2003 Audi A6 plowed into it and struck him.
Arevalo died at the scene. August, who initially survived the rollover, was killed when the Audi struck her vehicle, authorities said.
Officers arrested the woman who had been driving the Audi, 30-year-old Sunny Hall of El Cajon, on suspicion of DUI, Pennings said.
Lanes on the stretch of freeway were closed for about 2 1/2 hours to allow for investigations and cleanup, he said.