A 21-year-old woman remains in the hospital after she fell out of her mother's truck and was hit by oncoming traffic in North Texas on Sunday morning.
According to a news release from the Mansfield Police Department, at about 1:14 a.m., they received a call from the victim's mother in the 800 block of Farm-to-Market Road 917.
"When she fell out, I screamed, 'Sasha!' because it was unbelievable," said Sherryta Smith, who witnessed the entire incident.
Smith said her daughter, Sasha, called her early Sunday morning for a ride from Grand Prairie to her mother's home in Cleburne because she was drinking and didn't want to get behind the wheel.
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"She called me and said, 'Mama, can you pick me up?' and I said, 'Yeah, I'm on my way," said Smith. "We stopped and got gas. We were laughing, joking back and forth because we're both comedians; that's what we do."
"I said something to Sasha to make her laugh. She leaned back on a door and flew out," cried Smith.
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"We didn't know it wasn't secure. It wasn't closed all the way, and the way my truck is, we don't have signals in there. The lights and stuff are messed up, so we didn't know," explained Smith, who said her truck is more than 15 years old.
Smith said there was traffic around her, and when she could stop, she ran to her daughter.
"I got out of the car and was running across the street to get her. A white car hit her, and then the black car, and they kept going," described Smith, who called 911. “I could see my baby’s body that quick, up and down, up and down where they hit her.”
She said no one stopped as she called 911 for help.
"I’m dragging my baby, and it seemed like it took forever because her legs are so long," said Smith, whose daughter is 5 feet 10 inches tall.
"The one person that stopped was a policeman; he was just there by chance, and I told him, 'My baby has been hit; she fell out the truck.' I had been screaming. He couldn't believe what he saw when he got out of the car. He put his lights on immediately to block the intersection," said Smith.
Her daughter was taken by CareFlight to John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth, according to police.
Smith said her daughter's spine and lower body are severely injured, and her back is broken. She's already had multiple surgeries, with more scheduled for this week.
"It’s like humpty dumpty trying to put her back together, but thank God there’s nothing wrong with her brain," said Smith.
While they're dealing with her daughter's health, the family is also upset the people who ran over her didn't stop.
"I don't blame who hit her for hitting her because she was in the way. I've been blaming myself because my baby fell out of my car. That's my child. But why didn't you stop? Or slow down? They know something wasn't right," said Smith.
What makes matters even worse for the family is that Smith's husband died at JPS in 2014 after a motorcycle crash on the same stretch of road. Being back in the same hospital, with their daughter now fighting for her life, has kicked up old memories.
"He was brought to this hospital where he passed away. That was big for us. The way Sasha is hooked up right now, her siblings look at her, and they lose it because they see she looks too much like Daddy. My son said, 'I'm not going through this again,' but like I say, 'Sasha is strong,'" said Smith.
The family set up a GoFundMe account as they anticipate large medical bills.
Mansfield police said they're still investigating, and anyone who witnessed the incident should contact Officer Casey Knowles at casey.knowles@mansfieldtexas.gov.
