CAPE CORAL, Fla. — The photos that used to celebrate a dozen years of milestones, now represent the 12 short years of Sierra Rose Vazquez’s life.
A memorial with pictures, candles, and the urn holding her ashes stands tall in the front room of the Cape Coral House she grew up in.
Sierra was killed in June after a car hit her and her parents as they were walking into a Walmart on Del Prado Boulevard.
“Nobody will ever understand what it’s like to lose a child,” said Sierra’s mother Susanne Cohn-Vazquez.
“I have nobody to hug. I can’t touch her face. I can’t tell her I love her.”
Investigators say the driver, 85-year-old Roy Hensley, accidentally hit the gas pedal when backing up and struck the family of three.
Sierra died in her mother’s arms.
Susanne and Ivan Vazquez are speaking exclusively with Fox 4 Investigates to call for systematic change in Florida.
“(Sierra) was with me by my side and suddenly she is thrown in the air. She’s thrown to the ground and every bone in her body is broken, I can feel it,” Susanne said.
“She said ‘Mommy’ and then she was gone. Gone.”
The driver was cited for careless driving, his second such citation since 2020, but wasn’t charged criminally as investigators deemed the wreck an accident.
State license records indicate his license could be revoked soon after the New Year because he hasn’t met certain court requirements.
“I pray that God will forgive him,” Ivan Vazquez said. “Because I won’t.”
Florida law requires driver older than 80 to renew their license every six years versus every 8 years for drivers younger than 80.
Ivan Vazquez told Fox 4 Investigates he would like to see those regulations tightened for elderly drivers.
However, no state lawmakers have filed legislation to do so.
“I want something to come out of this,” Ivan said. “I don’t want the life of my daughter to go in vain. Because when is it going to happen next?”
