HOUSTON – Four children were injured and the grandmother was killed after a van crashed into a tree due to slick roads, officials said.
Robert Garcia and other good samaritans said they heard screaming as they rushed to rescue the four children trapped in a crashed van.
“None of the doors would open so we had to bust the window open,” Garcia recalls.
Houston police said the crash happened around 3 p.m. Tuesday afternoon on Airport Boulevard near Murr Way, near Airport and Cullen Boulevard in southeast Houston. Investigators believe the driver, Sherry Yvette Harris, lost control of the van while driving eastbound on the Airport, police said.
It had stopped raining but the roads still were slick and the van slid right into a tree, police said.
“The van went ahead, struck the tree on the driver’s side,” Garcia said. “The driver’s side (is) the one that took the brunt of it. It was pretty, pretty bad.”
The impact of the crash killed Harris, police said.
Garcia and other drivers, who were near when the accident, stopped and jumped out of their vehicles to help save the four children.
There were two 9-year-olds, a 7-year-old and a 3-year-old, police said. Three of the children are Harris’ grandchildren and the other child is a friend of the family, police said.
Police said all of the children were taken to a hospital and two are in critical condition.
“Luckily we have good Houstonians out right away,” Garcia said. “When they saw that accident scene they went ahead, everybody jumped out. It was just too many victims.”
Rescuers said Harris was wearing a seatbelt but none of the children were. Police said the actions of the good samaritans were instrumental in saving the children’s lives.