SOUTHWEST MIAMI-DADE, FLA. (WSVN) - A child has died and five others were injured following a serious collision in Southwest Miami-Dade that left a vehicle with extensive damage.
Miami-Dade Police and Fire Rescue units, along with Florida Highway Patrol troopers, responded to the scene along Southwest 92nd Avenue and Bird Road, just after 10 p.m., Thursday.
Cellphone video captured by a witness showed the rear end of a Toyota Camry completely ripped off. The video also showed a car seat in the back seat of the vehicle.
7News cameras captured a yellow tarp over what appears to be the deceased victim, a 7-year-old boy, at the scene.
According to an FHP report, a Ford F-150 with three people inside was heading west down Bird Road while the Camry attempted to make a left turn when, and the two collided at the intersection.
Witnesses said the impact sounded like a bomb, causing one of the occupants to be ejected and killed.
“I heard a car, a truck, running down 40th,” said a man at the scene, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “It must’ve been doing 70, 80 miles per hour, and then suddenly we hear, ‘Boom.'”
He told 7News that he jumped into action to help a woman and two children who were inside the car.
“She was on the floor picking up her kid like, ‘Somebody help me, please, somebody help me,'” the witness said, “so I grabbed the sweater that was there, and I covered the kid. And then she was on the phone trying to get some help from somebody, and then she was saying, ‘Where’s my daughter? Where’s my daughter?’ I heard a little girl crying, and I think she went inside the store.”
A 3-year-old girl and an adult victim, identified as Yamilet Miranda Matis, were transported to Kendall Regional Medical Center as trauma alert patients.
The three occupants of the pickup truck, including a teenage girl, were transported to West Kendall Baptist Hospital with injuries ranging from minor to serious. Their conditions as of Friday afternoon remain unknown.
The victims’ JTP Kendall Church community showed up to the scene and the hospital to show support.
Pastor Yader Simpson said he and the victim are not blood related, but they are family.
“Nobody expected this to happen,” Simpson said. “Nobody thinks this ever, ever, ever to happen to one of your family members. I do know that she’s a great mother who is always working for her two kids. Now, it’s only one.”
“Most of the members of the church have gone to the Kendall Regional [Medical Center],” said Angel Mesa, a member of the victims’ church. “Some of them have come here to support them. They’re going through a very hard time right now, and they need the community’s prayer for them.”
Iris Chavez, who also attends the same church, said the family in the Camry was headed home from church.
“Seven years old,” she said. “He had just begun to live. This is sad. There are no words.”
Simpson said Miranda’s daughter remains critical but is showing signs of improvement. He said the doctors are calling her a miracle child.
“They were not expecting the reaction they saw this morning, but they did get a really good reaction when she opened her eyes, she moved her arms, she moved her legs,” Simpson said.
As for Miranda, Simpson said she has some bumps and bruises but is physically OK, but he said emotionally, it’s a different story.
“She’s struggling because she knows one of her kids is not here with us,” he said.
“It’s hard to register a single mom here with two kids and going through what she’s going through right now,” Mesa added.
The church held a press conference on the collision, Friday afternoon.
FHP said charges are pending.
The church has set up a GoFundMe page to help cover expenses for the victims’ medical bills and funeral.
Copyright 2024 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.