Family Mourns Teen Girl Killed In Tri-State Accident
(CBS) – It was supposed to be a fun day. But a recreational trip ended terribly when an SUV full of kids was involved in a crash that killed a 14-year-old girl near north suburban Lincolnshire.
"She had so much life in her. She loved to love," Trice Horton tells CBS 2's Mike Parker.
Surrounded by her family, the mother talks about her daughter, Destiny. The girl's last hours were spent with her cousin and other relatives at Great America.
Late Sunday, as her mother drove everyone back to Chicago, the tire on their vehicle blew out and the SUV slammed into the center divider guard rail on the Tri-State Tollway near Half Day Road. Three of the passengers were thrown out of the vehicle, including Destiny.
She was on the pavement when she was struck by a semi-trailer truck.
"Her bones were broken. I just hold her, laid there with her," Trice Horton says.
The girl died. The other seven people in the SUV, including Trice, were hurt, but their injuries were not life-threatening.
"I know in my heart what she'd be saying now: 'It's OK, mom,'" the mother says.
She says before they left, she checked with all the passengers to make sure they were wearing seatbelts.
An investigation into the accident continues.