If you drive southwest of St. Louis for about three hours, you will arrive in Texas County, Missouri. The rugged, rural area was recently the site of a motor vehicle crash that has left a three-year-old boy without his mother and father.
Police say that the toddler survived the violent Highway 63 crash that killed his parents because he was properly strapped into a car seat. It was raining heavily when the toddler’s family’s car hydroplaned on the wet pavement and slammed head-on into an oncoming vehicle.
Law enforcement officials said that one person in the second vehicle suffered moderate injuries while the other sustained “serious” injuries, though the news article about the crash contained no details about the injuries.
According to the report, the mother, 23, worked at the Texas County hospital where the dad, 24, was taken after the crash. She was pronounced dead at the scene of the collision; he was pronounced dead at the hospital.
Their son was treated at the same facility for minor injuries.
A hospital co-worker posted on social media that there was sadness all over the medical center with news of the tragedy.
The local fire chief took to Facebook to share his thoughts as well, lamenting that the little boy must now grow up without a mom or dad. The chief made a particularly good point about what others can learn from this tragedy when he urged others to “drive to road conditions and remember getting there faster sometimes prevents you from arriving at all.”
Like everyone who reads of this catastrophe, we hope for the best for this young boy and for the accident injury victims who also have some trying days ahead.
