Throughout the healing process, Julia was plagued with
negative thoughts, wondering why this happened to her,
but finding Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) this
past year helped to turn her spirits around and helped her
find a positive spin on the tragic events.
“I went to a therapist and my mom has talked to me
and my dad and I thought about it, and I think I’m really
lucky because when it first happened, it all happened so
fast, so after it happened, I was thankful I was still here,”
Julia said.
Julia and her mother had been aware of MADD before
Julia’s accident, but it wasn’t until Victoria’s friend connected
them to Steven Benvenisti, who has been involved
with both MADD New Jersey and MADD National for 20
years, that Julia truly began to heal.
When Benvenisti was 21 years old on spring break in
Daytona Beach, Fla., a repeat-offender drunk driver struck
him as he was walking. In the middle of the night, his parents
were contacted to consent to his organ donation and
doctors informed them that, based on the level of coma
he was in, there was almost no chance of survival. His legs
had also been shattered. After two weeks, however, Benvenisti
awoke, but he had short- and long-term memory
problems and they believed he would lose both his legs.
“There is no cure for the type of damage I sustained,
so I was alone. I made a pledge in the hospital back then
that if there was a way, in spite of what said in the medical
literature for me, to have a 100 percent full recovery from
all my injuries that I would spend the rest of my life doing
everything I could to end drunk driving because a
drunk driver did this to me,” he said. “After almost
half a year in the hospital, 15 surgeries and extensive
rehab, I was blessed with a 100 percent recovery. In
support of the pledge I made, I now speak to tens
of thousands of students every year asking them to
make a pledge.”
Now a personal injury attorney determined to
help victims of drunk drivers, as well as a partner
at Davis, Saperstein and Salomon, Benvenisti not
only shares his story all over the world, but he also
authored “Spring Break: A True Story of Hope and
Determination” to spread his message further.
Upon meeting, Benvenisti and Julia had an instant
connection, and after sharing that she too would
like to write her own book, Benvenisti suggested
she come with him to speak at schools.
“When he asked her, Julia said, ‘People will maybe understand
more from me.’ You know at the age group, with
BC The Mag FALL 2018 27
Steven Benvenisti (third from right) and Julia Stuart (second from right), two victims
of drunk driving incidents, have paired up to share their stories and speak at local
schools. Here, they are pictured with school officials.