DeLAND, Fla. – Wednesday marks one year since a quadruple fatal DeLand crash that prompted officials to add a roundabout to the deadly intersection.
Sandra Lopes, 48, was on State Road 44 driving her three granddaughters to Freedom Park on April 5, 2016, when a Ford SUV cut into the path of her Jeep Wrangler near the Grand Avenue intersection.
The force of the collision caused Lopes' Jeep to flip and then catch fire. She died in the crash along with her granddaughters, Aleah Zurzolo, 4, Aryana Thomas, 2, and Jadyn Thomas, 4, officials said.
The driver of the SUV and the driver of a Dodge truck that was also involved in the crash were not injured.
The parents of two of the three girls, Jeff and Kami Thomas, said dealing with the pain of losing their daughters is still as difficult as it was a year ago.
"We miss them every day. It doesn't get any easier. We have had a lot of support from family and friends, people calling, asking if we are OK and checking in on us and we appreciate it and we love them all," Kami Thomas said.
The Thomases released 58 balloons Wednesday to represent the combined total ages of all four crash victims.
"My mom was 48 whenever she passed away. Our daughters were -- one of them was 4, the other one was 2 and our niece was 4, so altogether it would be 58," Kami Thomas said. "We are going to release some balloons today."
The crash was the 29th one at that intersection within a three-year period, 15 of which included injuries, according to the Florida Department of Transportation.
Officials announced two days after the crash that construction would begin immediately to add a roundabout to the troublesome intersection.Â
"FDOT will be moving forward immediately with the design and construction of a roundabout at the intersection of State Road 44 and Grand Avenue," FDOT said in a news release.
DeLand residents originally rallied against the idea with thousands signing a Change.org petition calling for an alternative solution.
"It is the only road that travels from DeLand into Lake County," the petition reads. "A roundabout will cause more confusion and more accidents. A (traffic) light will fix the problem, not create one."
Ground was broken on June 27 for the $1.35 million roundabout and construction was completed on Feb. 20. FDOT said no crashes have been reported at the intersection since the roundabout was completed.
The grieving parents said the only silver lining to the tragedy is the thought that their loved ones' deaths might have stopped others from meeting a similar fate at the intersection.
"It brings me comfort that nobody else would be hurt here like that, but it doesn't ease any of my pain," Jeff Thomas said. "It doesn't make me feel any better that my girls are gone ... as much as I talk to them every day, I'll never get to hold them and they would have stood for so much more than a roundabout, I know it."