Taunton Couple With 4 Children Seriously Injured By Alleged Drunk Driver
TAUNTON (CBS) - The skid-marks and scars along Route 140 North in Taunton tell a story all their own. It is a story about how early last Friday morning, four children came very close to being orphaned.
"I'm just angry, hurt and upset that somebody could just be so reckless," says Carmen Miranda, whose son BJ Miranda was driving his SUV with his fiancee Keri Madan in the passenger seat at his side.
According to Massachusetts State Police, another driver plowed into the back of their SUV, causing it to flip over several times. That driver, police say, was drunk behind the wheel and texting at the time of the crash.
The couple, who were wearing seatbelts, were still thrown from their vehicle.
"They said that the crash was so powerful, the impact was so great, that it snapped their belts," according to Mrs. Miranda.
The couple was critically injured. B.J. is now on a ventilator and dealing with badly damaged lungs, kidneys, and liver. Keri's injuries include a broken back and broken pelvis.
"They're awesome kids, wonderful parents, they're great providers and this was almost taken from them," Miranda told WBZ. "It's not fair to anyone. It's not fair to their children; their children need them."
The couple has four children; the youngest two girls, ages five and seven, haven't been told what's happening.
But their 14-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter have been able to visit their parents at Rhode Island Hospital in Providence, where they have been since the accident.
"It's a horrible thing," explains Madan's father William Tamulevich, "to see my daughter in pain and you can't take the pain away."
The extended family is now worried about the long-term, with two working parents who won't be healthy enough to earn a paycheck for some time.
A friend of the family set up a Gofundme page hoping to make up some of the difference.
"They're going to need it; they have a long road ahead of them," Tamulevich said. "We don't know what's going to be covered and what's not going to be covered."
The man driving the car believed to have caused this accident is 24-year-old Nicholas Coutinho of Walpole. He was not injured. State Police say the charges against him include operating under the influence of alcohol, texting while driving, speeding, and reckless operation. He was released on bail over the holiday weekend and is due back in court later in July.
