MESA, AZ — Two children died Wednesday in a crash on Loop 202 northbound at Brown Road in Mesa.
DPS says a pickup truck collided at a high rate of speed with the rear of a tow truck that was stopped on the side of the 202. Both children, a 9-year-old boy and an 11-year-old girl, died at the scene. A third child was hospitalized with minor injuries.
The mother of the two children who were killed was driving the pickup truck and may have been distracted at the time of the crash, according to DPS. She was taken to the hospital with minor injuries.
"Even if you're looking straight ahead, but your peripheral goes to the right, you have a tendency start to drift left or right. This poor woman just happened to drift to the right. And had she drifted either two seconds after she did, she probably would have missed that tow truck," said Jesse Torrez, director of Arizona Governor's Office of Highway Safety.
DPS gave an update on the crash Wednesday afternoon. Watch that video in the player below:
The children killed have not been identified.
Emily Schenck, a long-time family friend said that the two children who died had two siblings.
"We lost two children that have their whole lives ahead of them and two of their siblings who will forever miss them," Schenck said. "Those parents, I don't, I don't know how their world is going to be after this and I'm just devastated for them."
It's unclear if the mother faces any charges in the incident.
An online fundraiser has been set up to support the family.
