CLEVELAND, Ohio — The parents of several of the 11 children involved in a deadly crash over Labor Day weekend are calling for the driver to accept responsibility and turn himself into the police.
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On Sunday evening, Cleveland Police said an SUV carrying 14 people and a driver crashed into a utility pole on Denison Avenue near W 58th Street. The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner confirmed 7-year-old Da’Nyla Wray died from her injuries suffered in the crash.
Six-year-old Audrianna Howard, her 12-year-old brother Rodrick Stewart and their cousin Antoine Tipton were all inside the vehicle when it crashed Sunday.
Audrianna was in good spirits Wednesday afternoon after returning home from surgery for a broken leg she suffered in the crash.
“She wants to have playdates with her friends and stuff,” said her mother Katie Tatro.
Tatro said the physical and emotional pain her son and daughter, nephew, and the seven other children who survived the ordeal are enduring is heartbreaking.
“They’re starting to jump in their sleep now. My son said every time he closes his eyes, he sees his cousin,” she said.
She explained her son’s father picked up Rodrick, Audrianna and Antoine from her home on Sunday afternoon to attend a barbecue. At that point, she said the car was not packed full with people.
“They all had their seatbelts on; they all had their own seats. They were supposed to be going to Lakewood Park for a cookout. How they got to where they were? I don’t know,” she said.
Security video shared by a nearby Denison business, The Grow Wizard, shows the white SUV veering from the right lane into a utility pole near the curb.
“A car, kind of all by itself, just hit the telephone pole. No one hit the car, no one cut the car off,” The Grow Wizard owner Victoria Jones described.
Witnesses described the aftermath of the crash as “devastating.” Before EMS arrived, a bystander took the 5 children with the most severe injuries, including Audrianna, to the hospital in his personal vehicle.
“I owe that man everything. He got her to the hospital, he got her safe,” Tatro said.
Her son and nephew were still on the scene with bumps and bruises when she and her sister got there. Ambulances transported the 6 remaining children and 2 adults to the hospital.
The driver took off before police or EMS arrived.
“I was angry, I was hurt. How do you walk away from a car accident that you caused with 3 of your own biological kids in it and everybody else’s kids?” Tatro said.
She’s calling for the man to surrender and accept responsibility for the pain caused to her children, the others and their families.
“She didn’t deserve this; none of the kids in that car did, especially the little girl that passed,” Tatro said.
UPDATE: In an earlier version of this story, witnesses told News 5 that it took ambulances more than a half hour to arrive, but security video obtained today showed an ambulance arrived 12 minutes after the crash, with fire crews on the scene before that. We apologize for the mistake.
