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ANGUISH: Losing A Best Friend; Her Mother To Blame

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Oct 14, 2009 6:16 am US/Eastern

ANGUISH: Losing A Best Friend; Her Mother To Blame

Daughter Of Alleged DWI Mom Speaks Exclusively To CBS 2

Reporting
Lou Young

NEW YORK (CBS) ―

Click to enlarge 1 of 6: Brittany Gonzalez, 11, spoke out exclusively to CBS 2 and wrestles with the fact that her mother is under arrest in the drunk driving death of her best friend.
CBS
Click to enlarge 2 of 6: Carmen Huertas, 31, is accused of driving drunk when she lost control of her vehicle, causing it to flip over on the Henry Hudson Parkway on Oct. 11, 2009. One of seven young girls she was driving was killed in the crash.
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Click to enlarge 3 of 6: Carmen Huertas, 31, is stabilized in an ambulance after flipping her car over with seven children inside on the Henry Hudson Parkway.
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Click to enlarge 4 of 6: Leandra Rosado, 11, was killed after her friend's mother, 31-year-old Carmen Huertas, flipped the car they were in while apparently drunk.
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Click to enlarge 5 of 6: Kayla Fernandez was critically injured after the car she was driving in flipped over at the hands of Carmen Huertas, her friend's mother, who was allegedly driving drunk.
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Click to enlarge 6 of 6: The remnants of Carmen Huertas' Mercury Sable after the crash.
CBS

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Her best friend is dead and her mother is the one accused of killing her in a horrific drunk driving crash. It's unimaginable pain for a young girl, but she's speaking out exclusively to CBS 2 as she heads down a road of immense recovery.

Eleven-year-old Brittany Gonzalez needs help to descend the stairs at her dad's Chelsea apartment house, where she spoke to CBS 2. She is trying to absorb the shocking news that her closest friend – a virtual lookalike – Leandra Rosado, is dead because of the alleged drunk driving incident early Sunday morning at the hands of her very own mother, 31-year-old Carmen Huertas.

"I had a feeling she wasn't gonna make it because I had it in my dream," she told CBS 2. "I started crying once I heard this because once I heard the news, I was like, 'I knew it.' Because I was always there for her and she was there for me. We had our ups and downs, but in a way we couldn't resist our friendship."

The tragedy is compounded by the allegation of her mother's drunk driving. Brittany said her stepfather took her baby half-brother out of the car right before they left for the Bronx.

She said he didn't try to talk her mother out of driving.

"He didn't do anything," she said. "He just took the baby and left."

Brittany's father, Ernesto Gonzalez, who is Carmen Huertas' ex, said he knew she was drunk and told her husband not to let her drive.

"I been with her 10 years.I know when she's been drinking," he said. "She wasn't like drunk to the point of incapacitated, but I knew that the amount of liquor she drank, it was gonna hit her, it was gonna hit her sooner or later. It was gonna hit her especially on an empty stomach."

He's haunted by the fact he let them walk away into the night.

"He told me he had it. He said, 'I got it don't worry,'" he said.

But he didn't have it, and even a child can tell the adults didn't do their job. Brittany wrestles with the aftermath.

"I'm not mad at her just because we got into the accident. I'm not gonna only blame her, there was her boyfriend," she said. "We can't blame only one person, because we don't know who exactly is it – yeah she was drunk driving, but, yeah, her boyfriend could have stopped her."

Huertas, who remains hospitalized and under arrest, is aware of what has happened and is distraught and remorseful over the accident.

MORE ON THIS STORY:

DWI Mom Stunner: 'I Pleaded With Her Not To Drive'

Friend: 'She Told Me She Was In Good Hands'

Alleged DWI Mom Taunted Kids Before Fatal Crash

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