Mother Of Boy Who Drowned Urges Parents To Make Sure Kids Wear Life Jackets

By Alisa Becerra

Twin seven-year-old boys were drowning in the Delta. And tonight, a mother is grieving because she was able to only save one of them.

It's a parents' worst nightmare: the death of a child.

"I just saw him floating, and I went as fast as I can, to save him," said Ariel Vazquez, the boy's mother.

Ariel described the agonizing moments spent trying to save not one, but two of her children. The boys are 7-year-old twins. Both were drowning in the water at Sandy Beach Park in Rio Vista.

"I just dropped everything and just ran towards them, tried to save both of them," she said.

Other family and friends frantically tried to reach the boys who were drifting away.

"I was trying so hard to swim myself. I was drowning myself, I yelled out help, help me," she said.

They were able to rescue only one of the twins. The other, James Vasquez, was unconscious.
First responders tried to revive him.

"They rushed him to North Bay in Fairfield, [but] it was too late," she said.

Ariel is speaking out because she and her family want to prevent this from happening to another family, by stressing the importance of wearing life vests.

Ironically, the twins started out with theirs on.

"I told them 'don't take off your life jackets, go put them on,' but they're stubborn,"

Even with adults in the water, this tragedy happened in a blink of an eye.

"We just got out for a second and they just went,"