A three-car crash on the Turnpike Friday night left one woman dead, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.
Elizabeth Sanchez, 37, was a passenger traveling northbound on the Turnpike around 200th Street when the car she was in was struck by two vehicles, one of which fled, a release said. The car that caused the accident, described as a possibly light-colored Chrysler PT Cruiser, drove off from the scene, according to officials.
"It's a pain that will never, ever heal," Sanchez's mother, Iraide Hernandez, told NBC 6 in Spanish.
FHP said around 10 p.m., the Chrysler PT Cruiser was traveling along the on-ramp when it improperly changed lanes and crashed its left side into the back of the Nissan Pathfinder carrying Sanchez.
The driver of the Nissan, Bryan Echevarria, lost control and the car begin spinning counter-clockwise and stopped facing southward, FHP said. A tow truck traveling northbound smashed into the right front of the car, killing Sanchez, officials said.
Echevarria was taken to Kendall Regional Medical Center in serious condition, authorities said.
The driver of the tow truck was not injured.
Sara Lopez, who is married to Echevarria and was best friends with Sanchez, said the two had gone out to run an errand.
"I was supposed to have been in her seat, and fortunately and unfortunately I stayed home with her niece," Lopez said. "We kept calling and calling, why wouldn't they answer. If they got a flat they would have answered."
Lopez said her husband looked "very beat up" and had a gash on his head "the size of a football."
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Authorities said Sanchez was not wearing a seat belt. She leaves behind a 16-year-old son, a 15-year-old daughter and her mother.
Authorities continue searching for the hit-and-run suspect driving the PT Cruiser. The family is pleading that the person responsible come forward.
