Two brothers and a sister, all 12, are badly hurt after a collision in Antioch sent a car slamming into them as they walked home from school, California police say. A GoFundMe has been created to help the family.
When Jami Hanlin heard her three children had been hit by a car while walking home from school in Antioch, the California mom rushed to the scene.
“It was like a horror scene to me,” Hanlin told KNTV after the crash Friday, Sept. 16, recalling “seeing my son covered in blood telling me, ‘Mommy, I am dying.’”
After seeing her two sons, Hanlin asked police about her daughter, according to the station.
“They didn’t know there was a third child,” Hanlin told KNTV. Her daughter had been thrown 50 feet through a hedge by the impact and was lying in a side yard.
The three children, all 12 years old, are being hospitalized with serious injuries, KRON reported.
One boy is “doing well” and has had surgery for a skin graft on his face, according to the station. His sister has been taken off a ventilator after coming out of a coma. But their brother has not regained consciousness.
“If he does survive he will be paralyzed from the neck down and will need to be on a ventilator for the rest of his life,” Hanlin told KRON. “That is a lot for a 12-year-old boy that has been so full of life.”
The crash took place about 3:20 p.m. at Sycamore Drive and Manzanita Way, Antioch police said in a news release.
A red Chevrolet Impala traveling at high speed tried to pass a tan Mercury Mystique waiting to turn left but instead collided with it before careening onto the sidewalk, the release said.
The Impala slammed into the children, who were about two blocks from home, and came to rest on top of the most seriously injured 12-year-old, KTVU reported. The children are part of a blended family, an aunt told the station.
Police arrived minutes later and began treating the critically injured children, who were taken by helicopter to hospitals, the release said.
“Everybody’s devastated,” great-uncle Tim Comfort told KTVU. “The parents haven’t left their bedside.”
The two drivers, who were not named by police, were also taken to hospitals, one by helicopter, the release said. No information on their medical condition was released.
“My heart is broken for these kids,” Officer Darryl Saffold told KTVU. “I hope and pray that they’re going to be okay.”
Antioch is a city of 115,000 people in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta about 45 miles northeast of San Francisco.
What a sad story.
Charge the impala driver with 3 counts of attempted murder, child abuse, etc.
Praying for this family and the children.