Mother Killed, Daughter Clings to Life After SUV Crash

It’s a tragedy that’s shaken the quiet community of Santa Familia Village. A single mother walking home with her daughter, just a regular day, turned into a nightmare. Elizabeth Rivera, a mother of five, was struck and killed by a GMC flatbed truck that veered off the road. Her nine-year-old daughter, Janet, is now fighting for her life. Eyewitnesses say the driver was trying to avoid oncoming traffic but ended up on the wrong side of the road, hitting the pair on the shoulder. Tonight, a family is shattered, and a village is in mourning. News Five’s Paul Lopez has heartbreaking details.

 

Paul Lopez, Reporting

Forty-nine-year-old Elizabeth Rivera, a single mother of five, was walking home with her nine-year-old daughter when their lives were forever changed. Out of nowhere, a GMC flatbed truck veered off the road and slammed into them. Elizabeth didn’t survive the impact, and her daughter is now in the hospital, fighting for her life. The family, too devastated to speak, asked Vice Chairman Silas Sabal to share what happened. He says the driver of the GMC was on the wrong side of the road and swerved to avoid a head-on crash, only to end up hitting Elizabeth and her daughter instead.

 

Silas Sabal, Vice Chairman, Santa Familia Village

“The Toyota that was coming this way was driving on the right hand  side of the road but for that Toyota to avoid the GMC it would have had to go to the left hand side of the road to avoid the GMC. That GMC as well to avoid the Toyota, the immediate response from the driver, he must have been distracted by something to let you be on the wrong side of the road. He tried to avoid the Toyota and went further to the left hand side of the road and that is when he knocked down Elizabeth Rivera Carreras and knocked down her nine-year-old daughter. So, immediately as you see something happen, what people should nerver do is to move the body, but immediate instincts from everybody they got the daughter, but those do work at times because they rush the daughter to the hospital and the mother they were trying to rush her too, she was in the drain and the daughter on the other side of the drain. So they moved the daughter, took her immediately and the mother, they tried to move her but there was just too much blood coming from the spinal area, the lower back, but there was a lot coming out of there.”

 

Police responded to the scene in the aftermath of the incident. Assistant Commissioner of Police, Hilberto Romero revealed that the driver of the GMC has been arrested and charged.

 

ACP Hilberto Romero, Head of Crime Investigation Branch

“Upon arrival they saw a GMC pickup with damage. The driver was identified Godson Everwashie. He reported that he was driving the pickup when he lost control, hitting two people standing on the street side. One of them, Elizabeth Carreras, received fatal injuries. Godson has since been arrested and charged for manslaughter by negligence, causing death by careless conduct and drove motor vehicle without due care and attention.”

Rivera and her daughter Janet were just a hundred yards from their home when the incident occurred. It is a route the family took regularly to get home. The driver of the GMC is a member of the construction crew working on road upgrades in the village.

 

Silas Sabal

“And then like her daughter, the present situation is that the mom died and what makes it even more emotional is that because this lady is a single parent. She has five kids, her nine-year-old in standard four and she has her thirteen-year-old in high school and she was trying to get things ready for her kids. That was one of her worries as a single parent. So presently, the daughter is in KHMH and the daughter still don’t know her mother passed away as yet. She was unconscious and how she is right now, she sleep and then she get up the scream and they had to kind of tie her up, because she was pulling the drip out of her hands. She is traumatized. That is the condition with the daughter right now.”

In the wake of tragedy, the Santa Familia community has come together in a powerful show of support. Over the weekend, the village council wasted no time, they launched a dollar drive to help the grieving family, raising over a thousand dollars that was handed directly to the children’s relatives. Local businesses, at least one NGO, and countless caring individuals have also stepped up, contributing to cover young Janet’s medical bills and help with the children’s school expenses. With road works still ongoing in the area, Vice Chairman Silas Sabal is now urging authorities to install more speed bumps to prevent another incident like this one.

 

Silas Sabal

“So the only way we could prevent this is to put some bumps, and if we cant get the bumps then at least some thick ropes and we want to ask the higher powers to work with us and along with the village council to do something when it comes to the traffic. We have to do better if not a lot of people will get hurt and if you walk around the village a lot of our babies are on the streets and when school open like that will have us frighten as a parent.”

 

Paul Lopez

“I notice the shoulders on the road is not much, small shoulders.”

 

Silas Sabal

“Exactly, and this is not the first time somebody has gotten knocked down. What I am trying to do is help the family, because the family need that help. She is a single parent. So, some people can go on my Facebook page. So people can go on my Facebook page, Silas Sabal and so far the community respond beautifully, a lot of people the come and help but more help is needed.”

While the community has rallied around the grieving family, there’s growing frustration over the lack of communication from authorities. The relatives of Elizabeth Rivera say they’ve been left in the dark about the investigation into the crash. With so many unanswered questions, they’re now calling on officials to step forward and provide an update, because the family deserves to know what’s being done in the name of justice. Reporting for News Five, I am Paul Lopez.