CAR SLAMS INTO PARKED UPS TRUCK IN QUEENS, KILLING TEEN GIRL
By Eyewitness News
Thursday, May 18, 2023
SPRINGFIELD GARDENS, Queens (WABC) -- A 14-year-old girl was killed after being ejected from a car as it slammed into the back of a parked UPS truck in Queens.
Police are investigating why a 16-year-old boy was behind the wheel with another minor. The NYPD says he was driving with a Learner's Permit and speeding.
"As a mother, a mother don't want to go through this. I found her bracelet I can't sleep. I come to get her. I come to get my daughter," said Keisha Francis, the victim's mother.
Francis searched desperately through the broken glass Thursday morning for something, anything that would remind her of her 14-year-old daughter, Fortune Williams.
A bracelet was all that was left after the deadly crash.
"I have three children and she showed me more love than anything else. At night I have to cuddle with Fortune, I couldn't sleep last night. I can't live without my daughter," Francis said.
Fortune was a passenger in the red BMW. Eyewitness News has obtained video but stopped it before it shows the car barreling into the back of a parked UPS truck.
The impact knocked the delivery driver to the ground.
"The car was coming basically maybe 90-100 mph," a witness said.
An eyewitness says the 16-year-old driver of the BMW was tailing a tractor-trailer on North Conduit Avenue Wednesday around 6:45 p.m. when he tried to switch lanes and lost control.
Police, who set up a speed trap a day later, say the teen driver was going at high rate of speed.
The driver survived but Fortune was thrown from the BMW upon impact. She was a student at Springfield Gardens high school and interested in the medical field.
Her life was cut far too short, leaving her mother forever with a void.
"My life will never be the same without Fortune. Fortune is a sweetheart. She's a loving, caring child," Francis said.
Her mother says she was working a double shift the night of this tragedy. Fortune was home with her older sister, but went outside to hang out in her friend's car. Sadly, she never came home.
The 16-year-old driver of the car was taken to Cohen Children's Medical Center where he is stable.
