• Tara Bozick •
• Originally published May 29, 2008 at 11:44 p.m., updated May 29, 2008 at 11:44 p.m.

A three-vehicle crash Thursday morning killed one Victoria woman and sent three other Victoria residents to the hospital.

Annie Hernandez, who would have turned 42 today, was killed when a red Mercury Tracer crossed the center line of U.S. Highway 77 and struck the 2001 Toyota Rav4 she was driving, Department of Public Safety Lt. Glen Garrett said.

Hernandez was taking her daughter Heather Gonzales, 15, to school. She is a freshman at St. Joseph High School.

Firefighters extricated Hernandez from the SUV by cutting off the roof, Garrett said.

Heather, the only passenger in their SUV, was taken to DeTar Hospital Navarro with injuries and was in stable condition in the intensive care unit Thursday.

The driver of the Tracer, 20-year-old Joe Monjaraz of Victoria, was traveling west when he crossed the center line of the two-lane highway.

The first impact occurred a few hundred yards south of the Victoria city limits when Monjaraz struck the side of an eastbound 2004 Dodge Ram pickup driven by 16-year-old Bryan Lester of Victoria, Garrett said.

The pickup flipped and slid onto its roof in the eastbound lane, Garrett said. Bryan was taken to Citizens Medical Center for treatment and was released, Garrett said.

The Tracer then struck Hernandez’s Rav4 head-on, causing the SUV to flip on the driver’s side in the grass south of the roadway, Garrett said.

An Isuzu Ascender driven by Sally Taber from Victoria swerved into the ditch to avoid the wreck. The vehicle’s undercarriage was damaged.

Monjaraz’s Tracer came to rest in the westbound lane, Garrett said.

The PHI helicopter transported Monjaraz to DeTar Hospital Navarro, where he was listed in stable condition in the ICU Thursday night.

The wreck closed roadway to traffic between Lower Mission Valley Road and Main Street until almost noon, Garrett said.

Hernandez worked as a paginator in the creative services department of the Victoria Advocate.

Both friends and family said they felt a huge loss.

Her sister Connie Hernandez-Cornish, 36, spent all Thursday checking on her niece Heather and couldn’t believe her best friend was gone.

“I’m still in shock,” Hernandez-Cornish said. “I can’t even cry at this point because all I can think about are all the happy memories we had together.”

She remembered when Hernandez first started working at the Advocate and she would wait until after midnight to cook her sister a steak and they would stay up all night gossiping while watching MTV. Twenty-three years later, they would still meet up for lunch breaks at the Siesta Restaurant or go shopping.

They had hoped to spend more time together this summer.

“Oh, me and my sister were probably the closest out of all of us,” Hernandez-Cornish said of growing up in a family of four daughters. “We always had each other. She was my backbone.”

Several friends at the Advocate felt like a sister to Hernandez, who started there on March 18, 1985.

Another aunt of Heather’s, Annie “Big Annie” Andrade, worked with Hernandez as a sales assistant in creative services. Hernandez was referred to as “Little Annie.”

“She was a crazy little girl. She was a good person,” Andrade said. “She’s really going to be missed by us here.”

Andrade said Hernandez seemed like a serious person, but she would bust out with stories that could make you laugh.

Andrade, who stayed with her niece in DeTar on Thursday, remembered how the mom and daughter were always together.

“She tended to Heather. She spoiled her,” Andrade said.

She remembers taking Heather to Grandy’s, her favorite restaurant, every morning.

Hernandez would bring her co-workers cinnamon rolls if they called early enough, classified ad representative Emma Sanchez said. She cried as she talked about her mentor, who trained her to build pages on computers.

“I felt like I could talk to her easily,” Sanchez said. “She was like a sister to all of us.”

The Advocate’s Human Resources Manager Peggy Jones added, “She was our family.”

The Department of Public Safety, Victoria County Sheriff’s deputies, Victoria police and Victoria firefighters and EMS responded to the crash after a 7:18 a.m. call, Garrett said.

Tara Bozick is a reporter for the Advocate. Contact her at 361-580-6504 or tbozick@vicad.com, or comment on this story at www.VictoriaAdvocate. com.

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