“When she opened the door, she said, ‘My baby, my baby,’ ” said a witness who assisted the mother after the fatal crash
A mother cried out for her babies after a crash in Florida left her 5-month-old and 22-month-old children dead, according to reports.
On Thursday, July 10, at just after 6 a.m. local time, two vehicles collided on Williston Road near the Interstate 75 on-ramp in Gainesville, resulting in the death of the two children, ABC affiliate WCJB and The Gainesville Sun reported.
Early that morning, a 49-year-old man in a 2013 Nissan van was driving east and a 28-year-old woman was traveling west on the road when the vehicles crashed into each other at the intersection to the on-ramp for northbound Interstate 75, the Gainesville Police Department confirmed to the Sun.
The female driver had “incapacitating injuries,” while the other driver was only minorly injured, the Sun reported. An investigation is ongoing, and the mother’s current status is unclear.
The Gainesvile Police Department and the Office of the Medical Examiner, Florida District 8, did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s requests for comment.
Witnesses of the collision told WCJB they tried to help the mother after the incident.
“When she opened the door, she said, ‘My baby, my baby,’ ” witness Roy Gyles told the outlet. “I looked down and the baby was lying between her legs. I picked the baby up, but it was already gone.”
He and his partner, Stephanie McCallister, told WCJB that it appeared the woman was making a left turn when the driver of the van ran a red light, causing the fatal crash. Later, the son of the van’s driver told the outlet that the light was yellow as his dad drove into the intersection.
“I saw blood, I saw babies on the floor,” McCallister told WCJB. “I ran to the other side as soon as [the mother] said she had a second baby, and I pulled him out and put him in my arms. That baby took its last breath in my arms.”