Temecula nurse, Marine veteran killed on Southern California freeway after stopping to help crash victims
An emergency room nurse from Temecula and a U.S. Marine veteran were killed when they were struck by a car on the 15 Freeway in San Diego County last week after they stopped to help the victims of a crash.
It happened at around 4 a.m. on June 11, as Nereida "Nery" Benitez and Gary "Chad" Tillman were driving northbound near SR-76.
Benitez, on her way home from an emergency room shift at Sharp Memorial Hospital in San Diego, and Tillman, making a delivery for the sand and gravel company he worked for, both stopped upon seeing the aftermath of the crash.
California Highway Patrol officers say that the collision they stopped for was caused by an alleged DUI driver, who rear-ended another vehicle, causing it to veer into the center divider of the freeway.
Both Benitez and Tillman were struck by another car as they tried to assist the victims of the crash. First responders pronounced them dead at the scene, police said.
Tillman, 54, of Fallbrook, was a diehard fan of the San Diego Padres who worked as a trucker after 12 years of serving as a drill sergeant in the Marines, according to friends.
"A personality. A force of a person. He was just being Chad, being who he is," Tillman's friend and co-worker Cody Willingham told ABC10 in San Diego. "Doing what he could to help out, despite what it's going to cost him."
Benitez, a 40-year-old mother and avid hiker, had just celebrated her 14th wedding anniversary in Yosemite with her husband, Emilio Hernandez. He said that despite the tragedy he's now living, he knows that Nery would have stopped to help anyone, even if she knew they were driving under the influence.
"I'm sad. I'm angry, but knowing that she, that her last act was something that she loved doing," Hernandez said while speaking to San Diego-based CBS8.
Coworkers say that Benitez had just completed her enlistment to join the U.S. Air Force, where she planned to become a trauma nurse.
"She was telling me she was excited and nervous at the same time," Benitez's friend Tania Jones told ABC10. "So, she kept saying thank you for always believing in me and supporting me."
As a former Marine himself, Hernandez said that he finds some comfort in knowing that his wife and Tillman were both doing what they knew was right.
"Hopefully they are out there, patrolling the pearly gates, looking for someone that needs help," he said.
Police said that the alleged DUI driver, 21-year-old Jake Lopez Lawrence, was arrested at the scene and booked on suspicion of felony DUI and gross vehicular manslaughter. He has since bailed out of jail but is due in court on Thursday for arraignment.
Benitez's family has also planned to hold a memorial for their loved one in Murrieta on Thursday. A GoFundMe for the Tillman family can be found by searching for the keywords: "In Loving Memory of Chad Tillman."
