Three siblings aged 20, 17 and 15 killed in wrong-way crash involving 'drunk' driver
Three siblings from Louisiana were killed and their mother severely injured due to the reckless driving of an intoxicated truck driver. The accident took place on December 17 on Interstate 49, close to St Landry Parish.
The siblings and their mom were in an SUV when they were hit and instantly killed and injured as the intoxicated driver hit them with his truck. John Lundy, 54, who was driving the truck when he was under the influence was on the wrong side of the freeway.
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The siblings — Lindy Simmons, 20, Christopher Simmons, 17, and Kamryn Simmons, 15 — lived in Jeanerette in Louisiana. The trio has an older sister named Katie DeRouen who is 31. She has shared a GoFundMe page to ask for support as these deaths have shattered her family. Two days after this horrendous incident, Katie said, "I don’t know how to start or where to begin. Their Christmas gifts are still wrapped under the tree waiting for them." She added, "Our lives are shattered." The fundraiser has already received over $601K of its $750K goal.
The driver being 'intoxicated' is an assumption by the family of the victims. In this accident, the truck driver John Lundy was also killed. Hence, the police have not been able to clarify whether or not he was intoxicated. Unfortunately, the three siblings were admitted to separate hospitals, and their mother was taken to a different one. When their mom arrived at the hospital, she had a bleeding spleen, a punctured lung and two broken ankles along with a lacerated carotid artery.
Her husband, Ray Simmons, 58, quickly texted the older sister Katie, "Mom got in a wreck. It’s not looking good, but she’s stable." Katie DeRouen who lives in New Iberia flew to Lafayette General Medical Center to see her dad, mom and brother Shea, 30.
Katie was unsure about where her three siblings were and she called 'every hospital we could think of to locate them'. When the police officers admitted the three siblings to hospitals, they were not identified. This complicated the search even more. A frustrated Katie said, "what we didn’t realize was, the hospitals that had taken them in did not know who they were, therefore their names were not showing up [in the system]."
Sometime later, their father received a phone call saying, a "young blonde that was driving did not survive" and was taken to Opelousas General hospital. This is almost a 40-minute drive from Lafayette General Medical Center. The family rushed to the hospital. When Katie called them up and gave her siblings' name, the receptionist said there was no such name in the system but 'here was someone from a car accident'.
Katie said, "I expected to walk into one of my siblings in the hospital bed, bruised and banged up, but alive. We eventually were led to the room where they unzipped my sweet baby sister’s body bag and revealed to me her perfect face. Yes, that’s Kamryn."
Christopher was taken to Bunkie General which is another 40 minutes away.