Wrong-way driver kills pregnant teen, police say

Sabrina Fernandez planned to spend Christmas with her boyfriend and his family in Weatherford, but on Tuesday evening she drove to Grand Prairie to spend time with friends.

Just after 10 p.m., the pregnant 18-year-old, her boyfriend and a friend were on their way back to Weatherford when their car was struck by a wrong-way driver in east Fort Worth.

Fernandez and her unborn child died in the crash, as did Samantha Goude, 22, the wrong-way driver. Court records indicate that Goude was from Keller.

“We had just left her in Weatherford a few hours before the accident,” said Tommy Davila, Fernandez’s uncle.

“We were not alerted that she had been taken to the hospital until early this morning,” Davila said Wednesday, explaining that he and his wife had raised Fernandez since she was a baby and that she called him “Dad.” “We drove on I-30 and we had to make a detour around the scene of the accident on our way to the hospital.”

On Tuesday night, police were alerted to a wrong-way driver on Interstate 30 near Henderson Street. The 1993 Dodge Intrepid traveled 3 more miles before crashing into the Infiniti driven by Fernandez, a Grand Prairie resident.

Davila said the Infiniti was owned by the mother of Fernandez’s boyfriend, the father of her child.

“We all had spent time together on Tuesday because we were going out of town for Christmas and she was going to spend it with her boyfriend in Weatherford,” Davila said. “We dropped her off in Weatherford about 6 p.m. [Tuesday], and that was the last time we saw her.”

Police said the call on the crash came in about 10:30 p.m. as officers were responding to the alert on the wrong-way driver.

Nothing at the scene indicated that the wrong-way driver was intoxicated, Fort Worth police Capt. Scott Conn said in a news release.

“That will be determined during the more extensive investigation conducted by the traffic investigation unit,” Conn said in an email.

Goude was sentenced to 146 days Oct. 6 for theft of property, $500 to $1,500, in Fort Worth, according to Tarrant County criminal court records. And she was given 140 more days Nov. 21 for possession of a controlled substance/heroin in Keller, records showed.

She was pronounced dead at the scene. No one else was in her car.

Fernandez and her boyfriend, who is 17, and a 28-year-old woman were taken to John Peter Smith Hospital after the crash. Fernandez’s unborn child, a girl, died at 11:35 p.m. Tuesday, according to the Tarrant County medical examiner’s website. Fernandez was pronounced dead at 11:46 p.m.

Her boyfriend and the friend were in critical condition Wednesday.

Fernandez was the youngest of three girls. A 22-year-old sister is stationed in Georgia with the Army, and a 20-year-old sister lives in El Paso, Davila said.

On the day his family was supposed to go to Corpus Christi to celebrate Christmas, Davila said, he is now planning a funeral.

“It’s hard to believe this has happened,” Davila said.

This story was originally published December 24, 2014 at 7:45 AM with the headline "Wrong-way driver kills pregnant teen, police say."