Zachariah Gomez - a 14 year old victim of "Distracted Driving" in Manteca, California

Zac

Zachariah Gomez, age 14, died on April 19, 2014, on a street in Manteca, California.

His name has also been reported in the media as Zachariah Gomes. He was known as Zac to his friends.

Around 1:00 a.m., Zac was walking home with a few buddies after a bonfire he had attended earlier that evening. There were four of them - 3 boys aged 14, 15 and 16 and a 16 year old girl.

That's when, Mia Sara Aguiar, age 19, of Stockton, was looking for her cell phone while driving and plowed into the group. According to police reports, Mia was not drunk or high on drugs. She was "distracted".

Of course she was. You can't keep your eyes on the road when you are fiddling around looking for a dropped cell phone on the floor of your car. Mia Aguiar faces a vehicular manslaughter charge. And Zac is dead.

Zac was a freshman at Manteca High School.

His family is devastated over his tragic and senseless death. They will forever mourn him.

His friends are sad and greatly disturbed over this tragedy. Zac is described as a fun

Angels of God, pray for Zac

loving, uptempo kid. He was in the Junior Reserves of ROTC. He was just starting out in life. 

Okay....Let's go over the rules of driving once again for the dummies who don't quite get it.  

* A car is a 4,000 pound death machine.
* Your car can kill everyone you plow into.
* Do not drive pissed up and drunk.
* Do not drive wasted from drugs.
* Do not drive if you are so sleepy that you can't keep your eyes open.
* Do not drive if you are in "chat mode".  If you want to talk or text while you are driving, turn off your phone.  Go home. Start phoning and texting when you are out of your vehicle. Not while you are driving. 

Zachariah is survived by many loving friends and family members, who will forever miss him.

Pray for all who die by misadventure. They are with us one moment and gone the next.

God save us from the drunk drivers, the doped up drivers, the sleeping drivers, the speeding drivers and the distracted drivers who want to chat. They are killing us, Father. 

Pray that Zachariah is in heaven. Pray that he is at peace and is with God. Amen.