JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A mother of a young child was walking through the Baldwin Love’s Travel Stop parking lot with her child and husband on Sept. 15 when she was struck and killed by a semi-truck, according to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.
The crash happened shortly before 7:30 p.m. at the truck stop near U.S. 301 and Interstate 10 — two weeks before the couple’s son was set to turn 3.
JSO said the semi-truck driver was making a turn and did not see Estefany Hernandez, who was identified in a GoFundMe. She died at the scene. The driver was cooperating with the investigation, according to the sheriff’s office.
Hernandez’s husband, Fidel Hernandez, said the fundraiser that he was carrying the couple’s son when the truck struck his wife. He said he also nearly died.
“Estefany was not just a victim of a traffic accident,” Fidel Hernandez wrote. “She was my wife. She was my son’s mother. She was loved.”
The fundraiser says the family is facing funeral and memorial expenses, along with child care, living expenses and other costs after Hernandez’s death.
Natasha Cruz-Sanchez, a close family friend who set up the GoFundMe on behalf of Hernandez, said he is devastated.
“The whole family is devastated, he’s trying to do his best to be okay and be there for his son,” Cruz-Sanchez said.
She’s calling on the trucker community to help the family during this difficult time.
“This could happen to anybody at any time right, so when we lack empathy and when we lack support for our peers, we are also losing ourselves when we do that,” she said.
The fatal accident is prompting truckers to spread awareness about pedestrian safety.
“Oh it’s tragic man cause people got to pay attention, they just got to,” Tim Denney, a trucker, said.
Patrick Miller said drivers need to be more aware of their surroundings.
“Not rushing through a parking lot where people are walking, don’t move your vehicle faster than someone can be able to avoid you,” he said.
For the family, the crash was more than a traffic fatality.
“This is not just another traffic accident,” Hernandez wrote. “It is the loss of a person we loved and a mother who can never be replaced.”
Click here to donate to the GoFundMe.
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