A Florida mother spoke on the phone to her three children for what turned out to be the very last time, just minutes before police said a 15-year-old driver blew through a stop sign and smashed into the car the youngsters were in.
The fiery crash in Poinciana Sunday evening wiped out most of Sabrina Hernandez’s immediate family, including all her children — 11-year-old Mylie Cruz, 9-year-old Marvin Cruz and 1-year-old Anayari Hernandez — and her mother, 50-year-old Trinidad Hernandez.
“I’m dying inside. I don’t get to see my children anymore. I don’t get to see my mother anymore,” a devastated Sabrina Hernandez told the station Fox 35 during a candlelight vigil held Monday at the scene of the horrific collision at the intersection of San Miguel Street and Laurel Avenue.
The woman’s 52-year-old father, retired federal corrections officer Angel Hernandez, who was a passenger in the car, was hospitalized with serious injuries.
“I lost my entire family right here in this spot,” Hernandez said. “I will never wake up and see my children again.”
The grieving mom opened up about the last time she spoke to her kids as they headed home in their grandma’s car.
“My son called me and said, ‘Mommy, we’re 15 minutes away,’” Sabrina Hernandez recalled through tears. “I said, ‘OK, I’ll see you in a bit. I love you.’ And he said, ‘I love you, too.’”
When her children and parents failed to come home, the mom said she grew worried.
“I started calling my son, my mom and my dad and nobody was answering,” Sabrina Hernandez remembered. “And I started getting this gut feeling like something was wrong.”
Filled with dread, the mom-of-three then raced to an area hospital, where she learned that her family was gone.
“They were supposed to bury me, and now I have to bury all of them at once,” the distraught woman said, sobbing.
The gut-wrenching crash was caused by a 15-year-old driver operating a 2012 Chevrolet Impala with three other 15-year-old boys in the car, said the Florida Highway Patrol, according to the station ClickOrlando.
The teen motorist was speeding north along Lauren Avenue around 6:55 p.m. when he failed to stop at the intersection with San Miguel Street, according to troopers.
The front of the Impala smashed into the left side of Trinidad Hernandez’s 2022 Honda HR-V, which was propelled onto a grass shoulder, where it wrapped itself around a light pole.
The grandmother and her grandson Marvin died on the spot. The two other children in the car died later at the hospital.
Trinidad Hernandez’s husband underwent a successful surgery for his unspecified injuries but has not yet been told about the deaths of his loved ones, according to a GoFundMe page created by Angel’s brother, Sgt. Heriberto Hernandez, a 20-year veteran of the New York City Police Department.
The 15-year-old driver was hospitalized with serious injuries. His three passengers were only slightly hurt.
Asked by Fox 35 if she had a message for the teen driver, Sabrina Hernandez incredibly said: “I forgive you. That’s because I’m a Christian and I believe in Jesus.”
At the same time, she said she will not stop until she gets justice for her family.
Her anguished husband, Mickey Hernandez-Morcilio, mourned the loss of their children on Facebook, writing longingly in a Tuesday post: “to know that I can’t touch you guys, hear your voices or even lay eyes on you guys breaks me!”