NORTHWEST MIAMI-DADE, FLA. (WSVN) - One child has been killed and seven other people have been injured after a multi-vehicle crash in Northwest Miami-Dade.
According to detectives, a young girl was killed in a three-vehicle crash as she was heading to school near North Miami Avenue and Northwest 163rd Street, at around 8:20 a.m. Tuesday.
Family members identified the girl as 12-year-old Lapsca Karelle Philogene. They said she was a student at Thomas Jefferson Middle School.
The crash involved a black Nissan Maxima traveling south on North Miami Avenue, a blue Honda CR-V that was heading west and gray Nissan Altima traveling east on 163rd Street.
All three vehicles collided in the intersection. It is not clear how the crash happened.
Rescue crews transported the victims to Jackson Memorial Hospital North and Aventura Hospital.
Officials said the two occupants of the Honda CR-V were transported to Aventura Hospital in critical condition. The driver and two passengers of the Nissan Maxima sustained minor injuries and were released at the scene. Two occupants in the Nissan Altima were transported to Jackson Memorial Hospital North in stable condition.
According to the young girl’s relatives, her older cousin was among the victims and is now in Aventura Hospital’s Intensive Care Unit.
“[We’re] trying to piece together all the information, trying to gather as much as they can to figure out exactly how this traffic crash occurred,” Miami-Dade Police Detective Chris Thomas said.
Several witnesses at the scene shared with 7News what they saw and heard.
“It’s like I heard something, and I saw the car was flipping up,” said a witness who lives nearby. “I don’t know how the car comes to the child. It could have been me.”
“No surprise that it happened,” said a driver passing by who did not want to be identified. “It impacts you because, obviously, it’s not something that you would like to witness whatsoever. It’s very, very hard, and especially now that I just find out that it’s a child deceased here. Trust me, it breaks my heart. I wish that I could have done more, but only thing you can do is report.”
Just before 4 p.m., tow trucks removed the wrecked vehicles from the scene and officials reopened North Miami Avenue.
Police are now investigating the crash.
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