POINCIANA, Fla. – A vigil was held Monday night at the site of a crash in Osceola County where four people, including three children, were killed Sunday evening.
The Florida Highway Patrol said the quadruple fatal crash happened around 6:55 p.m. on San Miguel Street at Laurel Avenue in Poinciana. That’s where a memorial for the victims is growing.
“When I tell you I’m dying inside, I’m dying inside, OK?” said Sabrina Hernandez, the mother of the three children killed in the crash. The fourth person was her mother.
“I’m dying inside. I don’t get to see my children anymore. I don’t get to see my mother anymore.”
Troopers said the crash was caused by a 15-year-old driver who ran a stop sign at a high rate of speed and struck an SUV, resulting in the deaths of Hernandez’s mother and the three children, ages 1, 9 and 11 years old. The FHP said the boy did not have a learner’s permit.
Also in the car was Hernandez’s father, who is in the hospital in serious condition.
According to troopers, the 15-year-old boy was driving a 2012 Chevrolet Impala with three other 15-year-old boys in the car. The teen was speeding north on Laurel Avenue and did not stop at the intersection with San Miguel Street.
The front of the car struck the left side of a 2022 Honda HR-V, which was traveling west on San Miguel, the FHP said.
The Honda rotated onto a grass shoulder and collided with a light pole, according to an FHP crash report.
“My son called me and said, ‘mommy, we are 15 minutes away’ and I said, OK I’ll see you in a bit, I love you.’ And he said I love you too,” Hernandez said. “And I’m sitting on the couch waiting, and after like 30 minutes and I’m still hearing sirens and stuff, I was thinking to myself they were supposed to be here, they were supposed to be here.”
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Hernandez said traffic offenders in the Poinciana area got away with a lot, and there wasn’t enough enforcement of traffic laws in the area.
“Are we not worth it in Poinciana? Do we count at all? What is the difference that you can go into another town and there’s cops everywhere?” she said.
The teen driver suffered serious injuries and was taken to a hospital, the FHP said. The other three boys were taken to hospitals with minor injuries, according to the crash report.
Hernandez said she forgives the teen because she is a Christian, and she knows he made a mistake. Still: “I’m not going to stop until I get justice for my family. Because the same way he ate the stop sign and killed my family, he still got to wake up today and my family didn’t,” she said.
The crash remains under investigation.
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