‘I tried to avoid a reckless driver,’ Fort Worth mom says after crash that killed her baby
On Sunday afternoon, Carla Perez of Fort Worth loaded up her family and drove to an Arlington Walmart for some Christmas shopping.
Within minutes after she got on Interstate 20 in Arlington, Perez said, a black Honda and a white Chevrolet Avalanche were swerving in and out of traffic.
In seconds, the Avalanche was near her and headed toward her, she said.
“I tried to avoid a reckless driver,” Perez said Thursday in a telephone interview with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “I swerved into the other lane and there was the 18-wheeler right in my rear-view mirror.”
That 18-wheeler hit the back of Perez’s 2009 Ford Escape SUV, causing the vehicle to veer off the highway and roll several times. Her 9-month-old son was ejected from the vehicle.
The baby, Zadqiuel Hector Escamilla Perez, died at a hospital Tuesday morning. Seven people were in Perez’s vehicle and six, including the baby, were taken to local hospitals. The others were released Sunday after being treated.
Perez’s son was sitting on the lap of one of her passengers at the time of the crash and was ejected when her SUV rolled several times.
“I don’t blame the truck driver at all,” Perez said. “He even honked.”
But Perez said she had only two options as a reckless driver headed her way: stay in her lane and get hit by that driver, or move into another lane.
“If we would been hit by that reckless driver, it would have pushed us underneath the 18-wheeler and more people would have been killed,” she said.
“I tried to speed up, but it just wouldn’t go faster,” Perez said “I looked through my rear-view mirror and saw the 18-wheeler hit us.”
The fatal crash occurred shortly before 2 p.m. Sunday on eastbound I-20 near US 287 in Arlington.
At the time of the crash, seven people were in the SUV, which Arlington police say is designed for only five.
Perez and the driver of the 18-wheeler were not seriously injured, Arlington police said.
Her son was critically injured and taken to Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth.
Zadqiuel died at 8:26 a.m. Tuesday at the Fort Worth hospital, according to the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office website.
Arlington police continued on Thursday to investigate the fatal crash.
The Arlington Police Department wants to remind the public that state law requires all children younger than 8 years old, unless they are taller than 4 feet 9 inches, to be properly secured in a child safety seat whenever they ride in a vehicle.
Funeral services for Zadqiuel are pending.
