To customers at the hair salon in her Avondale home, she was "the braid girl.'' To her friends, she was "Punch.'' To her grieving mother, she's "my baby.'' Katherine Davis never had a chance.

She was bringing a carload of kids home from a high school basketball game at about 11 p.m. Jan. 10. As she waited at a stop sign on West Liberty Street at Quebec Road, a pickup truck slammed into her car from the rear like a misguided missile.

"He left quite a bit of skid marks,'' said Cincinnati Police Officer Joe Stevens, who went to the scene. Mrs. Davis' compact 1989 Nissan Sentra was pushed through the intersection and into a utility pole.

"He pushed the car so hard that it broke the utility pole in half,'' Officer Stevens said.

Hit and run

"This crash is alcohol and excessive-speed related,'' the police report said.

Clinton Vilardo, 21, of Price Hill, fled while Mrs. Davis was dying in the tangled wreckage. But witnesses followed him. When he ran the wrecked Ford F-150 into a tree less than a block away, they called the cops.

Mrs. Davis' daughter, JasmineTeasley, 14, was injured in the crash and received stitches in her head and lip, according to her aunt, Lukea Ricks. Mrs. Ricks' son, Levell Ricks, 15, was also injured. A friend who was riding in the car, Teair Dawson, 17, is still in intensive care at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center with serious injuries.

As many of us realized Thursday while white-knuckling our way to work on hockey-rink roads, a deadly car crash can happen to anyone. There but for the grace of God...

But most of our families would at least have money to pay for a funeral. That's not the case for the survivors of Mrs. Davis.

She had no insurance, and police say Mr. Vilardo was also uninsured.

Mrs. Davis' husband, Cubie Davis Jr., is out of work, recovering from surgery. Her mother, Norma Jean Hadnot, is disabled, on a fixed income.

`It's very rough'

"We wanted to have a funeral on Saturday, but we don't know if we have enough money,'' said Mrs. Ricks.

"It's very rough,'' Mr. Davis said. "My daughters are being little soldiers and helping me stay strong. But we can't get her in the ground yet.'' He and his wife also have an 11-year-old daughter. They celebrated their 21st anniversary on Dec. 31. Ten days later, she was suddenly gone. She was 38.

Officer Stevens said Mr. Vilardo's blood alcohol reading was 0.15, well over the state's legal limit of 0.10. Officer Stevens said he is recommending prosecutors charge him today with aggravated vehicular homicide, plus three aggravated vehicular assault charges for injuries to the teens, and felony charges for fleeing the scene and tampering with evidence.

A fund to help the family of Katherine A. Davis has been set up at U.S. Bank branches.

As of Thursday, there were no contributions. "I don't know if anyone knows about it yet,'' said Brent Miller of U.S. Bank.

Mrs. Hadnot remembers her daughter as a sweet girl. "She lit up everybody's life. Everybody loved my baby,'' she said.

Mrs. Ricks said, "She would help anybody.''

So now it's our turn to help her family. To make a contribution, contact any branch of U.S. Bank.

E-mail pbronson@enquirer.com or call 768-8301.