DENVER — The holidays are supposed to be a joyous time, but for the Holland family, this season is incomplete without their loved one.
Commerce City Police Detective Curt Holland was off duty when he was fatally struck by a drunk driver in Oct. 2020.
“I shouldn't be putting together all the toys on my own, picking out all the gifts. That was something we always did together,” said Amanda Holland, Curt's wife.
The deadly crash happened in the area of Highway 2 and Turnberry Parkway and involved an unmarked Commerce City Police Department Ford Explorer, a Ford F-350 and a Kia Soul. The F-350 was traveling southbound on Highway 2 while the Ford Explorer and Kia Soul were traveling north.
According to the Colorado State Patrol, the F-350 traveled off the right side of the road onto the shoulder, then came back onto the roadway and collided with the Explorer and Kia. The F-350 struck the Explorer head-on and collided its side with the driver’s side of the Kia, CSP said at the time.
The driver of the Explorer, identified as Detective Curt Holland, and the driver of the Kia, identified as Francesca Dominguez, 31, were both killed in the crash.
“The hardest thing I've ever done was to tell my daughter that her best friend was not coming home,” Amanda said.
Amanda is using her family's story in hopes of preventing other drunk driving crashes this holiday season.
“This was a person who was on his third DUI. He was three and a half times the legal limit,” she told Denver7.
So far this year, 190 people have died on Colorado roads due to impaired driving. Sam Cole, traffic safety manager at the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT), emphasized the urgency of addressing this dangerous behavior.
“Impaired driving is one of the top causes of traffic deaths on our roadways,” he said.
With New Year's celebrations around the corner, law enforcement agencies are ramping up efforts to curb impaired driving.
“We can expect heightened enforcement on our roadways to remove impaired drivers before they kill somebody,” Cole said.
Both CDOT and Holland urge the public to make safe choices.
“Please plan in advance. Plan for a driver. Plan for an Uber,” Amanda insisted. "You put everyone at risk when you're on the road and you've been drinking.”
As Amanda and her children navigate the holidays without Curt, they are doing everything they can to keep his spirit alive.
“We talk about Curt all the time. We celebrate him,” Amanda said. “You can have fun and still have a plan to get home safely.”
Amanda hopes that others will take her message to heart and make safety a priority, for the sake of their loved ones and the community at large.
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