3 die in rollover of SUV packed with 10 kids
 

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg...AG7V9RNCU1.DTL

Note*
Wear your F***ing seat belt and if you dont at least make your kids (or other passengers wear them.:mad: :mad:

Delfin Vigil, Tanya Schevitz, Chronicle Staff Writers
Monday, November 15, 2004


A speeding SUV packed with 10 children -- none wearing seat belts -- rolled over several times on Interstate 280 in San Francisco, killing three people and injuring eight when the driver swerved to take an off-ramp, according to the California Highway Patrol.

Cherie Williams-Joseph, 28, of San Francisco was driving a Chevrolet Suburban about 80 mph at 7:30 p.m. Saturday when she missed her exit at Ocean Avenue and swerved over a raised median divider that separates the highway from the off-ramp, according to the CHP.

Williams-Joseph lost control, and the SUV rolled over three or four times, ejecting several people. Williams-Joseph, her 16-year-old daughter, Joan Parker, and 4-year-old Reggie Bennett died at the scene, authorities said.

Eight children between the ages of 4 months and 14 years were injured, four of them severely. The group had been returning home from a family gathering, authorities said.

Authorities said Williams-Joseph was following her husband on southbound I-280 when the accident occurred.

"Apparently, they were following one another, driving at a high rate of speed," said Officer Shawn Chase. "The husband took the off-ramp. The wife missed it and veered off."

Authorities said they had received a report of a reckless driver on southbound I-280 just before the accident.

Chase said Williams-Joseph was related in some way to all 10 children in the SUV. No one in the vehicle was wearing a seat belt, and the three people who died were ejected.

The most critically injured child underwent surgery for head injuries Sunday at San Francisco General Hospital. Three other critically injured children were upgraded to stable condition Sunday. The other four children had minor to moderate injuries.

Williams-Joseph's husband looked back and saw the accident, authorities said.

It was one of three fatal vehicle accidents that took the lives of five people on Bay Area roads over the weekend. A sixth died in an apparent suicide.

Janet Pomeroy, a 51-year-old Rio Vista woman, was killed Saturday evening when the motorcycle she was a passenger on hit a dead dog, causing her to be thrown down an embankment of eastbound Highway 4 in Martinez, the CHP said.

About 5:20 p.m., the 52-year-old driver of a 2004 Harley Davidson lost control of the bike, struck the side of a motorcycle the couple was following, and veered off the highway and down the embankment, reported the CHP. The driver sustained minor injuries while the driver and passenger of the other motorcycle were uninjured.

About 30 minutes later, a pedestrian standing on Interstate 80 in Vallejo was struck and killed by a car, and the car's occupants were injured. Stephen Palevich, 61, of Oakland was driving a Honda sedan about 5:45 p.m. west on I- 80 at the Highway 37 over-crossing when he struck the unidentified man, according to the CHP.

Palevich told the CHP that he could not see the victim because the man's clothes were too dark. The Solano County coroner's office said the unidentified victim's fingerprints are being checked through an FBI database, because no identification could be found on him or at the scene of the accident.

Palevich and his passenger, Kathleen Palevich, were taken to Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Vallejo where they were treated for minor injuries.

On Sunday, eastbound Interstate 580 was closed in Castro Valley from 3:42 to 4:30 p.m. after a pedestrian apparently jumped to his death off of the Dublin Canyon overpass, according to the CHP. The victim was pronounced dead the scene.

E-mail the writers at dvigil@sfchronicle.com and tschevitz@sfchronicle.com.

Re: 3 die in rollover of SUV packed with 10 kids
 

she had her daughter when she was 12????

Re: 3 die in rollover of SUV packed with 10 kids
 

Agreed! If they'd only buckled up, they might still be alive. :(

Also, if you miss your exit on the freeway, the safest thing to do is to go on to the next exit. If need be, you can then get back on the freeway in the other direction and go back to the exit you wanted to take.

Re: Re: 3 die in rollover of SUV packed with 10 kids
 

I know this exit. It's a long entrance and then splits off first to the right then left and it slopes up hill. It's not well lit and easy to miss. I've seen people cut over from lane 1 to lane 4 :eek: and almost flip or hit the median (which is what this woman hit).

Regarding the age thing, yes, it's sad but the parents don't pay attention to what their children are doing this is a result. When I 've taken the public transport, I see these young girls with a baby in the stroller and one on the hip. :mad: Having conversations such as, "and my baby's daddy said he's gonna move in with me and my mother...":eek: WTF?!?!
I could go on a tangent regarding this topic.
:rolleyes:

ETA
AEPhi Alum, you're right. All they had to do was go to the next exit which is about 200 yards away, make a u turn and get back on the freeway. What's a few minutes compared to a few lives?

How come?
 

I have travelled this road quite a few times! It really kills me when the kids are not buckled up (not to mention pisses me off)

It takes me back 2 years ago where I witnessed the aftermath of a fatal accident outside my house in Surrey, BC. 7 people were piled in a car (no seatbelts)

I was chilling at the computer and heard "Screech" "Boom" and then heard myself yell "ISHT!" Saw a kid lying on the side of the street...he died in the hospital later that day. His grandmother was dead at the scene

Buckle up America
 

One of the programs SGRho endorses

Buckle Up America

10 kids and the driver seems like a lot of people in a Suburban. That's probably why they didn't have seat belts.

1. They shouldn't have been speeding
2. If she was following her husband, he should have had some of those kids in his car
3. They should have been wearing seat belts
4. She should know how to drive right and not "swerve" to take the exit. Take the next one and make a u-turn. It doesn't take that much effort or time.

And why was someone walking on/by a busy freeway in Vallejo?!