Police: GPS fell from windshield just before York crash hurt 2 children

YORK A two-car head-on crash Saturday in York that sent two children to a Charlotte hospital with serious injuries apparently happened after the driver of one of the vehicles crossed the center line while reaching for a GPS unit that fell off the windshield, according to the York Police Department.

The crash was on Alexander Love Highway, said Lt. Gary Messer of York police. Two of the children were taken to Levine’s Childrens Hospital in Charlotte after the crash.

According to the York incident report, the driver of the first SUV, Angela Privette, 50, was heading southbound on the highway when the GPS unit fell, Messer said. She reached down to retrieve the GPS, crossed the yellow center line, and hit a SUV headed northbound head-on, Messer said. The second SUV was driven by Shaneka Jenkins, 39, Messer said.

The passenger in the first SUV was a 3-year-old male child. Three children - two girls and one boy - were in the second vehicle, Messer said.

The investigation is still pending, Messer said.

Both drivers were treated and released from Piedmont Medical Center. Workers from a nearby veterinary clinic jumped in to help before fire and EMS arrived.

“I mean it was really a horrific, horrific scene,” witness Carrie Smith told WSOC-TV.

She pulled up seconds after the cars collided, before first responders arrived.

“Oh gosh, the cars were just mangled, absolutely mangled,” Smith said.

Smith said everyone was hurt, but among the worst was a little boy.

“My daughter, she put her little jacket under his head to hold his head up,” Smith said.

Smith saw one person giving the boy CPR.

“You had one lady that went above and beyond her job trying to bring life back into this little baby,” Smith said.

Smith wonders how the victims are doing now.

“I didn't do much but pray for him,” Smith said. “Put my hand on him and pray for him.”

WSOC-TV contributed.

This story was originally published March 16, 2015 at 6:13 AM with the headline "Police: GPS fell from windshield just before York crash hurt 2 children."