Mom driving wrong way dies with 2-year-old son in head-on crash, Texas cops say
A mother and her 2-year-old son are dead after crashing head-on with a pickup truck in south Texas, officials say.
Authorities responded to the scene along FM 2221, north of Palmview, at about 3 p.m. on Monday, June 24, the state Department of Public Safety said in a news release.
The woman, identified as 22-year-old Milagros Ayala, was driving a Chevrolet Cruze sedan with her son, Elier Padilla.
It’s not clear how it happened, but Ayala started driving the wrong way, traveling east in a westbound lane, according to investigators.
A Chevrolet pickup truck came toward her from the opposite direction, officials said. The driver tried to veer out of the way, but it was too late, and his truck collided with Ayala’s sedan.
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Photos from the scene show both vehicles were devastated by the impact, but the small sedan was rendered nearly unrecognizable.
The driver of the truck was taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, officials said. Both Ayala and her son were pronounced dead at the scene.
She was not wearing a seat belt and Elier wasn’t strapped into a car seat, officials told KRGV.
Palmview is a roughly 250-mile drive south from San Antonio.
This story was originally published June 25, 2024 at 3:58 PM with the headline "Mom driving wrong way dies with 2-year-old son in head-on crash, Texas cops say."