9-year-old posed for first day of school pics — but died before making it to class
The first day of school photo is a well-known social media phenomenon.
But one little girl’s back to school shot before what was supposed to be her first day of fourth grade will be especially important for her family to look back on.
That’s because Payton Crustner, 9, never made it to school Tuesday, according to a news release from the Texas Department of Public Safety.
She had just posed for her first day of fourth grade photo just minutes before 7:16 a.m., when state troopers responded to a two-vehicle crash on FM Road 225 in Rusk County. The pickup truck involved in the collision was driven by an 18-year-old who swerved into the northbound lane from the southbound lane, according to the release.
Payton’s mom, 32-year-old Miranda Michelle Clark of nearby Laneville, tried to swerve out of the pickup’s way, but the GMC hit her Nissan Sentra and sent it spinning, authorities say.
Payton, one of three people in the Sentra, was ejected, according to the release, despite wearing the bottom portion of her seat belt at the time of the crash. She was pronounced dead at the scene by Judge Darlene Childress, DPS officials said in the release.
LeAndria Starr, who says she’s a close friend of the family, got the news just after 11 a.m.
“Just got some devastating news, a friend of mine was involved in a car accident that killed her daughter,” Starr wrote on Facebook. “And her son is on a ventilator.”
Starr is now coordinating a Facebook fundraiser for the family, as well as a GoFundMe campaign. In the GoFundMe description, Starr wrote the crash happened just 10 minutes after Payton held up the sign that said she was officially a fourth-grader and smiled for the camera.
Her 16-year-old brother was riding in the front seat without a seatbelt, and is still in the ICU, according to KTBS. He was taken from the scene of the crash to Christus Trinity Mother Frances Hospital in Tyler, about 45 miles away, according to the news release.
Clark and Marcus Wayne Dukes, the driver of the GMC pickup truck, were treated for injuries at Mother Frances Hospital and released, as was the third passenger in Clark’s Nissan, a 3-year-old toddler, according to the release.
“I know nothing anyone says is going to make this any easier, but i am so sorry for this unimaginable loss you and your family have had to indure (sic),” one Facebook donor wrote to Clark and her family. “Just know that there are people all over the world that you have never met that are praying for you and your family through this tragic time.”