Witness describes crash that killed woman, unborn child in Independence
By Andy Alcock
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INDEPENDENCE, Mo. (KMBC) — There’s an ongoing investigation into a fatal crash in Independence on Saturday night.
Pedestrians, including a pregnant woman and a small child, were hit by an unidentified woman driving a Jeep near the intersection of East Walnut and Dodgian streets.
The pregnant woman and her unborn child both died.
The small child suffered minor injuries.
“I heard a really, really loud, big boom. People screaming,” said Andrew Smith, who lives just west of the crash site.
Smith and his girlfriend Samantha Zachary were outside at about 8:40 Saturday night when they heard the crash.
Zachary called 911 and stopped traffic.
Smith ran to the scene.
He found a flipped-over Jeep catching fire and the pregnant woman trapped.
“About 15 people had to move the vehicle to get her from being not smashed underneath it,” Smith said.
He also found a woman in her 50s on the passenger side, he said, “bent like a pretzel with her legs over her head.”
Smith said after getting her out of the Jeep, she was able to walk away.
Investigators say she was the Jeep’s driver.
Smith said he saw officers give her a field sobriety test.
The crash happened as the Jeep’s driver was heading west on Walnut, where vision is blocked by a hill.
The posted speed limit is 25 miles per hour.
“I think people drive too fast a lot of times on this road. And bad things can happen,” Zachary said.
According to Independence Police, the Jeep’s driver also struck several parked vehicles.
Smith and Zachary said a driverless minivan rolled down the hill from the crash site and slammed into a pole right outside their home and about 20 feet from where Zachary was standing in the driveway.
Both the pregnant woman and the small child were taken to the hospital.
The woman and her unborn child were pronounced dead there.
“To hear that she passed away and her baby, that’s just awful,” Zachary said.
According to police, the driver is cooperating with the ongoing investigation.
The name of the deceased woman is not yet being released pending family notification.
So far, no charges have been filed against the driver, who police officers are also not identifying.
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