FORT WORTH, Texas — Five people, including a family of four, died Sunday in a wrong-way crash on Northwest Loop 820, Fort Worth police say.
One of the victims has been identified as 33-year-old Chelsea Cook, who was riding in a pickup truck that was struck by a wrong-way vehicle, her family said.
The crash happened around 3:35 a.m. Sunday near Marine Creek Reservoir, according to police. When police responded, a small car involved in the crash was already burning.
Fort Worth Police spokesperson Tracy Carter said there was a family of four inside the car, a Ford Focus. Both parents and their children died in the crash.
It's not yet clear who was driving the vehicle, but Carter said the Ford Focus was traveling east in the westbound lanes of Loop 820 when it collided, head-on, with a pickup truck and caught fire.
The truck driver survived, but his passenger — his fiancé, later identified as Cook — died in the crash, Carter said. First responders took the man, identified by family as Evan Ranallo, to JPS Hospital for treatment.
Ranallo and Cook were just engaged earlier in October. Her family shared with WFAA a picture of their proposal at a balloon festival in New Mexico. Cook was a designer who often traveled to Africa for work, her family said.
Witnesses to the crash told WFAA they could see smoke from miles away, even in the early morning darkness.
"The car was right in front of me," said one witness, who does not want to be identified. "You could barely see any of it because there was so much fire. It was engulfed in flames... I watched all these first responders going and grabbing crowbars, going and grabbing defibrillators, and coming back with this look on their faces like they knew it was too late."
"Two families are really, really hurting right now," Carter told WFAA.
Police do not know how old the children were. The medical examiner has not yet identified the other four victims who died.
The identification process is likely to take longer because of the extent of the fire damage, officials said.
"Every once in a while, you're going to run across a certain call - you may get two or three in a career - that really stick with you," Fort Worth Fire Department spokesperson Kyle Clay said. "I'd think this is one of them."
Investigators are still trying to determine why the Ford Focus's driver was going the wrong way.
"We're seeing this happen far too many times," Carter said. "Even in the last six months, right? This is something I think that is preventable."
Loop 820 was closed for about six hours on Sunday.