CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A Clover woman charged in a fatal crash early Saturday in Charlotte has two previous convictions for impaired driving.
Kelly Ann Conkin, who is still hospitalized, faces charges of driving while impaired, felony death by vehicle and possession of marijuana after police said her car crossed the median on South Tryon Street and hit a car in the opposite lane.
Cecelia Buitrago de Gonzalez, 79, was killed in the crash, and her daughter and son-in-law were badly injured when police said Conkin hit their car.
From her hospital room, Rocio Gonzalez told Eyewitness News that she has a broken hand and a fractured back.
Her husband has two broken legs, a broken hip and a shattered knee. They said their thoughts are on the mother they’ve lost.
She said her mother was visiting from Bogota, Colombia.
Buitrago de Gonzalez was in the back seat as the family returned to Charlotte from a visit to Hilton Head, South Carolina.
They were just a few miles from Rocio Gonzalez’s southwest Charlotte home when their car was hit.
"We are concentrating on our love and on our mother, but we want to make sure that this will not happen to anybody else, ever again," Rocio Gonzalez said.
Conkin was charged in 2012 with misdemeanor DUI in South Carolina.
Court records show that she pleaded guilty to that charge in 2014. Records show that Conkin was charged with DWI in Charlotte in 2013 and pleaded guilty.
Rocio Gonzalez said Buitrago de Gonzales was a wonderful mother who spent her life helping poor and disadvantaged children and their families in Bogota.
"She was a quiet, loving woman who always wanted to make sure everybody else was happy. Her happiness came from giving, not receiving," she said.
Buitrago de Gonzalez was supposed to fly back home to Bogota on Monday. Instead, her family is planning a funeral they never expected.
"We will miss her presence," Rocio Gonzalez said. "But her life and love will live forever."
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