WESTERVILLE, Ohio — A Columbus family is still struggling to make sense of a crash in Westerville that left a woman dead last Friday.
Debra Harris, 66, was killed in the crash at the intersection of Polaris Parkway and North Cleveland Avenue Friday afternoon. Her two grandsons, ages 14 and 6, were injured.
The woman driving the car Harris crashed into was 36 weeks pregnant and was taken to Riverside Methodist Hospital where she was rushed into an emergency C-section. A boy who was in the backseat of her car was taken to Nationwide Children’s Hospital to be treated for his injuries.
"It just killed me that I couldn't be there,” said Brittney Harris, the daughter of Debra.
Brittney said she was at work on Friday when she received a call from her oldest son, Darius, saying, "they just got into an accident, he believes that she's dead, he doesn't want her to die, he wants it to be him.”
Debra was on her way to a doctor’s appointment at the time.
"My son said that she was reaching for her inhaler, and it fell and he got out of his seatbelt to pick up the inhaler off the floor and when he went back up that's when the crash occurred,” Brittney said.
Brittney believed her mother may have passed out before the crash because she missed the turn she was supposed to take.
Darius suffered a laceration to his head from hitting the windshield. Brittney’s youngest son, Brannan, suffered a concussion, two broken elbows and fractures to his hip and jaw.
"It just broke my heart, I literally just cried before I got on this video chat with you,” Brittney said.
Now, Brittney is left with the grief of losing the woman she considered not just her mom, but her best friend. She said she’s doing her best to support her boys who also suffered a loss, especially her oldest.
"The last thing that he can remember her saying is that she has to make it for them, and she didn't. It just breaks my heart because that's the last thing he remembers her saying before she passed out,” Brittney said.
Brittney added she couldn’t be prouder of Darius, who worked to help and support everyone involved in the crash.
The funeral service for Debra is scheduled for next week.
If you’d like to support Brittney as she works to pay off medical expenses for her sons and mother, click here.