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A North Texas mother is now planning her 1-year-old daughter's funeral after the baby and her 10-year-old sister were involved in a car accident on the way to school.
The girls' grandfather was driving when they collided with an 18-wheeler on the I-20 service road in Dallas.
The girl's grandfather, Herman Daniels, remains at Methodist Dallas Medical Center in critical but stable condition. Relatives say he suffered a punctured lung, ruptured spleen and broken ribs. After the crash, he was trapped in the SUV and was unable to help his two granddaughters.
Dynise Brown is faced with a daunting task — tending to London’s injuries, her 10-year-old daughter, while planning the funeral of her youngest daughter, Duchess.
“Not her being one and have to sit here and bury a 1-year-old due to somebody carelessness,” she said.
1-year-old Duchess died Monday morning in a wreck at the intersection of Lancaster Street and the I-20 service road in Dallas. Her grandfather was taking London to her first day of school when their SUV collided with an 18-wheeler. Witnesses nearby heard it happen.
“The customers, a lot of them, said the 18-wheeler took the light. I don't know who actually took the light. I was on the register,” recalled Serena Salinas, who works near the crash scene. “Literally, the motor was out of the 18-wheeler hanging out. That's how hard they hit.”
Investigators say it could days before their report is complete. So far, no one has been charged.
Francis Daniels is the girl's grandmother. She rushed to the scene after getting a frantic call from her husband who was still pinned inside the SUV
“My 1-year-old — the impact was so hard it knocked her out of her out of her car seat into the front seat,” Daniels said. “She always liked to follow her ‘Pop-pop,’ but I should've kept her here with me.”
Daniels says 10-year-old London was ejected. Witnesses say she was walking around in shock.
“She was actually saying her baby was in there,” Salinas said. “That's all she would say.”
And while investigators reconstruct the crash scene to try and determine exactly what happened, the family is rallying around London and her granddad, who is said to be heartbroken over the loss of baby Duchess.
“It kills him to know that she's gone and he couldn't be there,” Brown said.