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.
Amanda Holland expressed her dismay about having to handle all the toy assembly and gift selection alone, tasks that her and her husband Curt used to do together.
Richard Butler
The tragic accident occurred at the intersection of Highway 2 and Turnberry Parkway and involved an unmarked Ford Explorer from the Commerce City Police Department, a Ford F-350, and a Kia Soul. The F-350 was heading south on Highway 2, while the Explorer and Kia were traveling north.
The Colorado State Patrol reported that the F-350 veered off the road to the right and onto the shoulder, then returned to the roadway where it collided with the Explorer and Kia. The F-350 first hit the Explorer head-on and then collided with the driver’s side of the Kia, as stated by the CSP during the initial investigation.
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.
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
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.
Colorado Department of Transportation
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.
