Director Bob Clark (“A Christmas Story”), dead codependent
Co-Dependents of the Month:
A “codependent” is someone who is or has been in a committed relationship with an alcohol or other-drug addict, or has been severely and negatively affected by one. Director Bob Clark, 67, best known for “Porky” and the holiday classic, “A Christmas Story,” and his son, Ariel Hanrath-Clark, 22, unfortunately became such codependents for the instant before they both died in a head-on crash. Hector Velazquez-Nava, 24, was arrested for DUI and gross vehicular manslaughter after driving his 2007 GMC Yukon north in the southbound lanes of Pacific Coast Highway into the Clark’s 1997 Infiniti Q30 at 2:30 in the morning. There were no doubt dozens–or hundreds–of incidents for which friends, family or the law could have intervened in Velazquez-Nava’s alcoholism, but didn’t. His blood alcohol level was .24 per cent and he walked away from the accident with minor injuries.