911 Calls From Crash That Killed Mom, Daughter

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} The first 911 calls from the scene of a crash that killed a South Jersey mother and her daughter reveal that speed and the severity of the impact were factors noticed by more than one witness.

“One truck just flipped over. He was going on the opposite side of the street about 90 miles an hour,” the first caller, a woman, told the 911 dispatcher. More than ten calls came in from witnesses and residents who lived near Russell Avenue and Chapel Avenue in Merchantville.

Anada Medina, 36 and her 18-year-old daughter, Stephanie Garcia, both from Cherry Hill, died when the truck hit their minivan head-on that afternoon on January 31. Accident investigators say the driver of the truck, Keith Johnson, 31, reached speeds in excess of 100 miles per hour, and was driving the wrong way.

Another caller, frantically describes the scene, “We saw the whole accident! Yeah, they are really hurt. This silver car came speeding out of nowhere and messed up (inaudible) on the wrong side of the road and everything,”

Johnson and his passenger were both hospitalized with critical injuries. He faces two charges of vehicular homicide and will go straight from the hospital to jail when he recovers. His attorney says Johnson has expressed sympathy from his hospital bed.

“He certainly felt remorse about the whole thing. You’d have to be not human not to,” Robert Simons said.

Toxicology results on Johnson are due back any day.

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