AUSTIN — Estefania Soto’s left leg is paralyzed and she has a prosthetic foot. It's her new normal.
“I haven't given up,” the 26-year-old Austinite said. “Even though not a lot of people think that I'll be able to walk. But they definitely didn't think that I'd come this far."
She keeps going for her six-year-old son, b
ut he is a constant reminder of what happened last year.
"My son, he still talks about him all the time,” said Soto.
"He" is Raul Diaz, Soto's boyfriend during June 2017.
"Always goofing around,” Soto said. “Always happy.”
Soto was riding on the back of Diaz's 2001 Yamaha on June 10, 2017 on FM 973. She said they were driving to return the motorcycle to a friend.
She was pregnant with their child – Amelia Elizabeth.
Deputies said Cesar Corona-Quiterio hit them in a wrong-way crash while driving drunk and Soto flew off.
"I did try to get up,” she said. “I was, like, screaming his name out."
As firefighter Jason Venzant tended to her injuries, she asked if her boyfriend was alive.
"I couldn't really tell her about him because it would have worsened her condition,” Venzant said.
Diaz died.
And days later, hospital staff performed a funeral for baby Amelia.
Soto said every day she thinks about what could have been.
"There was a couple girls who, I was pregnant at the same time with,” Soto said. “I see them with their daughters and their little boys and I know my daughter would have been walking already. Maybe saying her first words. Or smiling.”
Soto has had 22 surgeries since the crash.
"Drinking and driving takes a lot of lives," said Soto.
She also wants to remind everyone to
look twice for motorcyclists, especially during the Republic of Texas Biker Rally, when thousands of motorcyclists will come to Austin.
In 2017, there were 14 motorcycle crashes during ROT Rally.
The Texas Department of Transportation said motorcycles make up about one percent of all registered vehicles in Texas -- but account for 13 percent of all motor vehicle deaths.
“You know, it was two lives,” Soto said. “They were very special to us. And I just wouldn't want this to happen to anyone else. And I don't want anybody to ever forget about them."
The man accused of hitting them, Cesar Corona-Quiterio, is in jail on a $2.1 million bond.
Corona-Quiterio's next court date is July 16 and a trial date has not been set.