A suspected drunk driver lost control of his car and barreled into a mother and her son recently, killing the 8-year-old boy.

The pedestrian accident occurred as the woman and her son walked home from an Alexandria, Virginia, shopping mall to their home in nearby Lincolnia. She had walked the boy to the mall to play video games after he asked her to take him on a Sunday-afternoon outing.

The driver, 22, is unlicensed and was not injured in the accident. He faces charges of drunk driving and manslaughter. Prosecutors said the man's blood alcohol content registered at nearly twice the legal limit, which is 0.08.

The mother was seriously injured, suffering two broken legs and a broken hip, and she is expected to be in the hospital for weeks.

The boy was an only child who was in the third grade. The grandmother said the mother and child always had been close, even more so since the woman's husband left town. Last fall, the husband went to Mexico to try to build a permanent home for his son and was struggling to find the money to return to Virginia for his son's funeral and to be at his wife's bedside. The family was going to ask neighborhood establishments if they would put out a donation box, the boy's grandmother said.

The paths of the driver and the mother crossed frequently. A housekeeper at a motel, she often took her break at the fast food restaurant next door, where the man worked as a cashier. And now their lives are linked in the worst way. After his criminal charges are resolved, he could find himself liable in a wrongful death lawsuit, which would punish him financially for his negligence.

Source: The Washington Post, "Family grieves after Brian Hernandez-Chavez dies in alleged drunken-driving case," Allison Klein, Jan. 17, 2012