In a heartbreaking-but-also-inspiring story, twins Rosalie and Aurora Simmons climbed up an embankment off a Washington highway after the vehicle they were in crashed and killed their father.
Washington State Patrol Spokeswoman Heather Axtman told People that they had received a 911 call around 6 p.m. and, when they arrived, they found the wrecked vehicle. Corey Simmons, the twins’ dad, was found dead on the scene.
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4-year-old twins Rosalie and Aurora Simmons survived a car crash that killed their father, Corey Simmons.
After the car crashed, the girls were able to get out of their booster seats, climb out of a broken window, and climb up the 100 feet embankment where the car had settled after the accident.
“In this particular area of our state, it’s a real rural area, pretty wooded, a lot of under-brush,” Axtman told People. It’s unclear what caused the crash. Simmons was on his way home when the crash occurred and, according to his girlfriend, was “very familiar with the area.”
“My daddy! My daddy!”
A good Samaritan saw the girls standing by the side of the road as she passed and called 911. Because it was so dark, the woman was not able to see the car but could sense that something was wrong as she approached the girls.
“As she was driving down the road her headlights had
illuminated the area and she didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, but just
as she passed, she saw two little girls standing on the side of the road,” said
Axtman.
After getting the girls away from the side of the road, they kept saying, “my daddy, my daddy.”
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“Brave little girls that did everything in their ability to help their dad…”
The girls had minor injuries following the crash and were “reunited
with their family” at the hospital.
“These two little girls, at 4 years old,
overcame every typical fear a little kid has, and that’s dark and woods,” Axton
said. “Instead, they realized that their dad needed help and heroically decided
to leave that car. All the tragedy that surrounds this crash, we have very
brave little girls that did everything in their ability to help their dad and
that to me is amazing.”
When I’m not hanging out with my three-year-old and husband in Brooklyn, I’m busy writing stories for Mamas Uncut and managing PR + Marketing for Magnolia Bakery, based in New York City. On weekends, you can usually find me at a local park or playground pushing my daughter on the swings, “researching” the best almond croissants in Park Slope or launching into impromptu family dance parties at home, the sidewalk or, every once in awhile, a restaurant bathroom. I’m still trying to master the whole parenting thing, but I have learned that copious amounts of coffee, humor and humility are involved on a daily basis.