Please pray over this very unfortunate accident!
Authorities report that the woman driving a car filled with children when it veered off a suburban Minneapolis Minn highway ramp lacked a valid drivers license. Marion Guerrido did have a driver’s permit but not a license according to State Patrol Lt. Eric Roeske. Guerrido’s permit was considered invalid because she was driving without another licensed driver in the car, as required, at the time of the crash, he said.
The crash happened Thursday morning in St. Louis Park. Guerrido was driving northwest on Hwy 7 toward Hwy 100 on a damp roadway when the 1998 Pontiac Grand Am went into a storm water pond. Guerrido escaped and screamed for help, but the children were trapped inside as the car sank in water 8 to 9 feet deep. Guerrido was the mother of three of the children while the other two were her boyfriend’s. “Obviously it was a very chaotic situation, a very unusual situation because of a number of factors: the temperature of the water, the depth, no information about initially what had happened,” Officer Roeske said. “All we knew were there were kids in a vehicle at the bottom of a pond.” Roeske said rescuers pulled the children out one by one. The first child was pulled out approximately 25 minutes after the crash was reported, and the last one was in the water for about 45 minutes.
Authorities confirmed Friday that two of them – 5 year old Zenavia Rennie and 7 year old Alarious Coleman-Guerrido – had died. The other three children – Aliyana Rennie, 1, Amani Coleman-Guerrido, 5, and Zarihana Rennie, ;6 – remained hospitalized in critical condition according to Rick Petry who is now the families attorney. It was not immediately clear whether the children were in seat belts or child seats, and Roeske said authorities were still investigation where they were headed. The investigation is likely to take several weeks. “We have not identified anything or ruled out anything at this time, other than alcohol,” Roeske said, adding that there was no evidence Guerrido had been drinking. “We have received no information nor have encountered any evidence that would indicate it was an intentional act, but the investigation continues,” he said.
The intersection near this ramp has seen 18 crashes from 2010 to 2012, including one just last year in which another vehicle went into the same storm water pond, said Minnesota department of Transportation spokeswoman Bobbie Dahlke. The Transportation Department is planning a $60 million Hwy 100 reconstruction project that will remove that entrance ramp and build a new one on the south side of Hwy7. She said the ramp at issue is being relocated to maximize the merging distance for vehicles on Hwy 100, not because of safety concerns.
Click here to see our original report on this unfortunate accident: https://fggam.org/5-children-pulled-from-car-in-pond/
