Heartbreak, Disbelief After Deadly Wrong Way Crash In Dallas
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DALLAS (CBS11) - Finding the words is a struggle for friends and family mourning the loss of 23-year-old Hussein Zaybek.
Dyaa Al Botabeekh, a close family friend said, "All the community, they come, everybody loved him. He never did anything wrong."
Dallas Police said Zaybek was killed by a wrong-way driver, 27-year-old Lauren Cordova.
Investigators said she was traveling on southbound Central Expressway near Hall Street, when she slammed into Zaybek's car.
Police haven't said why she was driving on the wrong side of the highway.
Records show Cordova was sentenced to 90 days in the Rockwall County Jail after pleading guilty to DWI in 2009.
Along side Zaybek in the passenger seat, his younger brother, 21-year-old Mohammed, who relatives said suffered a broken elbow and a broken leg.
He was to undergo surgery at Parkland Hospital Tuesday afternoon.
They were returning home from having dinner in Dallas, where the celebrated Hussein's new convertible.
Al Botabeekh said, "Usually, they never go together. Hussein and Mohammed are a different personality. Mohammed has some fun. Hussein, very straight. He's 20, but he acts like 40 or 45, very mature."
One of the Zaybeks uncles, Abbas Al Bosary said, "He loved cars, he loved sports."
The crash was so severe, Dallas Fire-Rescue had to cut the victims out of the wreckage.
"I'm very sure he's in a good place right now. I pray for him. I keep him in my prayers everyday. It's going to be hard for us, it's not going to be easy."
The family is now preparing to have Hussein's body sent back to their native Iraq for burial.
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