Several years ago, Zach Kincaid‘s pregnant wife was tragically killed by a drunk driver, and ever since he has been desperate to raise awareness. And what Kincaid did to bring awareness to the issue of drunk driving is still as poignant of a message today as it was then.
So much so, that he decided to post photos of his deceased wife, Krystil Kincaid, and their unborn child on Facebook, hoping he could save another family from the same fate.
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“I put those pictures up so everyone can see the nightmare that I’m living and my kids are living every day for the rest of our lives,” he told DailyMail TV in an exclusive interview.
“I’m using it as a tool to protect everyone else. That’s what this is about. It’s not about me getting vengeance. This is about doing what’s right. This is about making sure that my wife didn’t die for nothing. That my daughter didn’t die for nothing. This is my way to honor them. This is my way to save others.”
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The drunk driver, Marcos Forestal, 28, struck his wife, Krystil’s minivan in Hemet, California, on September 9 at 8.30 pm. He was going 85 mph, speeding down the wrong lane.
Kincaid, 34, had been on the phone with Krystil, who was getting off of work early. She was planning to go on maternity leave in just four days.
“We were talking, and then I just heard her scream,” he recalled. “That scream only probably lasted about two seconds, but it replays in my mind very, very slowly.”
“I was stuck 450 miles away from her on the other side of the phone.”
He went on to recall how he could hear the fire department arrive, cranking up a machine to get her out of the wrecked car. A police officer told him Krystil and baby both still had a pulse.
However, Kincaid couldn’t get a flight home that night. And, a couple of hours later, a doctor called to tell him that his daughter – who they had planned to name Avalynn Onix – was dead.
“She was crying with me on the phone, telling me how perfect she was and how she had no damage and how she was fully developed,” he said. “Full head of hair and chubby cheeks and chubby thighs. How she is beautiful and perfect. And then they told me I had only four hours to get there and hold her before the coroner took her.”
Kincaid pleaded with them to break the rules, however, they could not oblige. They were not even able to open the blankets to let him see her on Facebook Live.
“I didn’t even see what my daughter looked like until September 26 – during the funeral,” he said. “That was the first time I saw her or held her.”
Unfortunately, the nightmare continued for Kincaid. The next day he got on a plane, he discovered that his wife Krystil had failed her first neurological test. Then she failed the second. The only thing left that was working was her heart.
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Kincaid had to break the news to the couple’s three children and his stepdaughter – who lives in Minnesota – that their mother was gone.
“They came to the hospital thinking they had a little sister,” he said of the couple’s three children. “They didn’t even see this coming. It was really hard….They not only lost their little sister, they lost their mom.”
Which was exactly why Kincaid felt he needed to post the heartwrenching photos to Facebook.
“It’s a harsh reality and people need to look at it, because drunk driving destroys more than just people that are killed in the crash,” he said. “I want to strike a nerve. I don’t want to be able to look the other way anymore. Look at my nightmare that I live every day.”