A 14-year-old girl was killed when a speeding car slammed into the back of a UPS truck in Queens.
Fortune Williams was the passenger in a red BMW sedan that police said was traveling at a high rate of speed along North Conduit Avenue in Springfield Gardens Wednesday evening. The car, being driven by a 16-year-old, could be seen on security video driving down the street before slamming into a parked UPS trick near the corner of 160th Street.
The hard-to-watch video shows the UPS worker get knocked down just as he was about to step inside, though he was not seriously hurt.
The passenger side of the BMW plowed into the delivery truck, and the out-of-control car came to a screeching halt immediately after. Remnants of the deadly crash were left scattered over the road, where there is now a growing memorial for Fortune, a freshman at Springfield Gardens High School who had dreams of becoming a doctor.
"My beautiful, smart daughter. She was very beautiful, smart, loving, kind, caring, sweet. Everything that’s good. A mother would want," said her mother, Keisha Francis. "She loved music. She loved to dance and she wanted to be a doctor and in high school she was doing nursing."
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Francis said she spoke to her daughter before the crash. She said they ended the call the same way they always ended conversations.
"When I was hanging up she said, 'Mom I love you.' Everyday. Every morning. She tell me she loved me," Francis said. "She’s just caring. She’s a good kid. Very good kid. I’m just so shocked."
The grieving mother went to the scene of the crash on Thursday, and found some of her daughter's jewelry on the ground.
"I go back to the spot to see if I could find my daughter. Because...this can’t be real. And then I find her bracelet and I find another bracelet," said Francis. "My life will never be the same, it will never be the same. I don’t know what will become of me after this because I can not live without my Fortune...I don’t know what I’m going to do without her.”
Dozens of family members and classmates gathered at a heartbreaking vigil Thursday night.
It’s unclear if the 16-year-old driver had a learner’s permit, though New York State DMV rules state there should have been a supervising adult in the car. The driver of the car was hospitalized but is expected to survive.
No criminal charges have been filed.
