‘I will never be the same’: Mother loses son and daughter in tragic Long Island crash

A mother who lost her 12-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son in a horrific and tragic car crash on Long Island is sharing her unconscionable grief, as details of what happened leading up to the crash start to surface.

“This is so terrible, this is such a terrible tragedy,” Tasheba Hamilton told NBC New York over the phone. “It almost killed me to hold my son, his body was cold…I just couldn’t imagine how this could have happened?”

Tragedy doesn’t begin to describe the heartache she faces. Hamilton lost her daughter, Hannah, and her son, Jeremiah in the wreck on Sunrise Highway in Massapequa just before 7:30 p.m. Sunday. The father of the children, 61-year-old Pat Huntley, also died in the crash outside a shopping center.

On top of her unthinkable loses, Hamilton’s 18-year-old daughter Brienna Peoples and her 5-year-old granddaughter Chantel Solomon were both still in critical condition at the hospital Tuesday night, fighting for their lives with what police called “extreme internal injuries,” including a brain bleed, from which they may never fully recover.

A photo from April shows all the family members together, at the funeral for Hamilton’s mother, and was one of the last times Hamilton was with all her children and their father. On Sunday, the children and Huntley had been out celebrating his new job, and were on their way to get ice cream when the car crashed into them from behind.

While investigators still have not yet definitely stated what caused the crash, police said a speeding car slammed into Huntley’s SUV while he was stopped at a red light. The 32-year-old driver of the speeding vehicle went into the back of the SUV, which then crashed into the car in front of it before flipping over and smashed into another vehicle at the stoplight.

First responders had to work on multiple cars, at one point cutting into the metal of one vehicle to get inside. Hamilton said she found out about the crash from a stranger who called her from the scene.

“I said ‘Who is this?’ He said ‘Your daughter and your family have been in an accident,’ and he said ‘I witnessed the whole thing, you have to come fast, it’s really bad,’” Hamilton told News 4.

It was her daughter Brienna who pleaded with the man to call her mother.

“I will never be the same, my other children will never be the same. My daughter and granddaughter have possibility of not walking and be disabled for life, if they live,” said Hamilton.

Huntley and their daughter Hannah were pronounced dead at the scene. Their son Jeremiah was rushed to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Hamilton said Huntley, of Flushing, Queens, was a caring father and advocate for veterans (his new job they had been celebrating was for director of veteran services at Medgar Evers College). Their daughter Hannah loved to paint and make artwork, she said, and their son loved video games, like many others his age.

Another of Huntley’s children, 14-year-old David, was in the front seat and miraculously survived, suffering back and rib injuries but is expected to survive. He walked away from the crash before collapsing on the road. He said that the car that struck them was street racing before the crash, according to Hamilton.

Another witness said similarly.

“We heard a car at a high rate of speed under the train trestle. It didn’t stop, didn’t do anything and just plowed into the cars, and the cars just went flying all over the place,” said Ruth, who saw the incident.

The driver of the Chevrolet Malibu that was in front of Huntley, an 83-year-old man, was injured and treated at the hospital. The driver of the third car struck, a 33-year-old, refused medical attention at the scene.

The driver of the Hyundai that plowed into the family suffered compound ankle fractures and other injuries. No charges have yet been filed in the crash, but police didn’t rule out charges as a possibility, saying speed was the main factor in the crash.

Hamilton wants the driver to face consequences, but she knows that won’t bring her family back.

“That’s not going to bring my children back,” she said through tears. “There’s no words for the pain that I am feeling, I am breaking down in public everywhere I go. I still don’t believe my son and daughter are gone.”

An investigation into the incident is ongoing.