Twin sisters Marcasia and Markwonda Crenshaw were returning home to South Florida Sunday night when they saw a van parked on the inside lane of Interstate 95. Concerned, they pulled over to make sure the driver of the van was OK.
It would be a fateful decision.
Marcasia, 25, was struck and killed by a swerving pickup truck as she tried to get out of its way, the Sun Sentinel reports. Markwonda ran in the opposite direction and told the paper she narrowly avoided getting hit herself.
“When I turned around, she was in the grass,” said Markwonda. “I was touching her, trying to wake her up. But she wouldn’t move.”
The twins were coming back from visiting their mother in Jacksonville, Fla., alongside their two young children, Marcasia’s 5-year-old son and Markwonda’s 2-year-old daughter.
They decided to pull over when they spotted the van. According to Markwonda, it was “stopped in the inside lane, air bags out, emergency lights on and smoking.”
“We pulled over to make sure everyone was OK,” she told the Sun Sentinel. “Who wouldn’t?” They parked in front of the van and exited their car to check on the driver.
According to the crash report, the driver of the pickup truck “attempted to aggressively brake and swerve left to avoid” the parked van. No one else was injured in the crash.
According to Markwonda, she and her sister were nearly always together, and roomed together while in college before returning to their hometown of Boynton Beach, Fla.
“I can’t eat, can’t sleep, crying, I’m just in disbelief,” Markwonda told the paper. “Honestly, I am trying to be strong because I have the kids.”
Read more at the Sun Sentinel.