‘We have to pick up the pieces’: Sons remember Arlington mom killed in car crash
After their mother was killed in a car crash in Arlington, Chance and Ethan Cypert have been left with an irreplaceable hole in their lives.
Tanya Cypert, 53, was turning left on South Cooper Street on March 9 when a man driving a 2025 Mercedes-Benz slammed into her 2022 Hyundai Tucson. She was less than a mile from her home. Tanya was transported to a hospital, where she died in surgery.
The driver of the Mercedes has not spoken to investigators, and charges have not been filed, police said.
Chance first learned about the crash when Tanya’s iPhone issued an SOS alert.
“The whole day didn’t really feel real,” said Chance, who lives in Colorado with his wife. “When something like this happens so unexpectedly, you just kind of go on autopilot.”
Ethan went to the hospital, where Tanya died less than two hours after the crash. Her French bulldog was also killed.
“Her seat belt saved her, but it also the thing that killed her,” Ethan said. “By the time they opened her up, she had lost too much blood.”
Tanya’s car was so mangled after the accident, Ethan said, that he didn’t even recognize it when he went to the Arlington police impound lot.
“The entire front end was gone,” Ethan said. “The engine was sitting next to it.”
Tanya grew up in North Carolina and California before moving to Grand Prairie, where she attended Grand Prairie High School and Mountain View College, her sons said. In Arlington, she had a vibrant social life and a job working in food service at Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine. Hundreds of people came to Tanya’s memorial service on March 11, Chance said, and shared stories of her life.
A GoFundMe for the Cypert family has raised more than $14,000.
“She touched so many people in the same way,” Chance said. “It’s heartwarming to know how many people she cared about.”
Before the crash, Tanya was hoping to move to Colorado to be with Chance’s family. Ethan intended to follow.
Now, though, her sons are picking up the pieces of the life she suddenly left behind. Ethan, who lived with Tanya, returned to the house they shared without his mother and their dog.
“That was surreal when I walked in, because I expected her to be there, even though I knew what had happened,” Ethan said. “You’re not thinking in the moment.”
The cause of the crash is still under investigation, but Arlington police believe that speed may have been a factor. Arlington police have been working to address street racing and reckless driving in the city. Police are also investigating if street racing was involved.
When Ethan goes to bed at night, he said, he can hear cars speeding down the same street where Tanya was killed.
“It’s disappointing,” Ethan said. “I’ve heard a lot of people telling me that they’ve heard about the story, but everybody’s still in their own micro universe … it’s not that they don’t care. They’re in their own mind.”
Seven intersections along South Cooper Street were included in the Safe Streets Arlington Comprehensive Safety Action Plan, passed in 2024 with the goal of reaching zero traffic-related deaths or serious injuries in the city by 2050.
Even if the driver does not face charges, the brothers said, they want him to remember the hurt that their family is going through.
“I genuinely hope that they remember this for the rest of their lives,” Ethan said. “They get to live on, but we have to live with the fact that our mom’s life was cut extremely short. We have to pick up the pieces. Our lives are going to be different forever. We have to operate differently now than we did before.”
Both of the brothers have visited the intersection where Tanya died. Ethan said that on Tuesday, he sat at a nearby shop and listened to some of Tanya’s favorite songs. She loved Kenny Chesney, he said, and ‘80s music.
“Especially that first time when I went back, I could tell that she was just telling me, ‘it’s OK,’” Ethan said.
This story was originally published March 26, 2026 at 3:41 PM.
