Thread: Dad goes to answer CELL PHONE kills 5 of his kids

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090419/...s/texas_storms

Officials: 5 Houston children dead in swamped car

HOUSTON – Five Houston children died Saturday after their sedan slid into a rain-swollen ditch when the driver lost control while trying to answer a cell phone, authorities said.

John Cannon, a Houston police spokesman, told several Houston television stations that the driver of the car was the father of four of the dead children, all 7 or younger. Cannon said the driver was taken for blood-alcohol testing.

The father was among two adults and a 10-year-old girl who escaped the fast-moving current that swept the car 100 feet from where it left the road and made the vehicle inaccessible to emergency workers for hours, Cannon said.

Houston television station KTRK reported that police said the dead children included 1- and 3-year-old girls and three boys, ages 4, 6 and 7.

Cannon said a passenger told police the driver's cell phone rang, and the driver lost control when he tried to answer it.

Houston Fire Assistant Chief Omero Longoria said in the online edition of the Houston Chronicle that rescue workers found the car in 9 feet of water about 7:30 p.m. Saturday, 2 1/2 hours after the driver lost control.

The children's deaths brought the weekend death toll to six from massive storms that swept across southeast Texas.

A 76-year-old Fayette County man died Friday after his car got stuck in a flooded underpass in Schulenburg, midway between Houston and San Antonio. Frank Floyd, 76, of Hallettsville, drowned after he and his wife became trapped after driving into a flooded railroad underpass on U.S. 77, said Schulenburg Police Chief Randy Mican.

"It filled up with water pretty quick and the water kept rising," said Mican, who estimated the water depth reached 8 to 9 feet. "It's not common to flood that much."

Floyd's wife, Mary, 72, managed to escape and was taken to a hospital. Her injuries were not believed life-threatening, the chief said.

By 5 p.m. Saturday, nearly 5 inches of rain had fallen at Houston's Hobby Airport, a record for April 18.

The initial leg of an annual 150-mile charity bike ride involving more than 13,000 cyclists raising money for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society was washed out Saturday by the second consecutive day of heavy rain.

The 25th annual MS 150 had been scheduled for Houston to La Grange. It was scrapped after Friday's torrential downpours flooded the Fayette County Fairgrounds, where tents were set up for overnight accommodations for participants. Saturday's continuing rains made riding treacherous.

"The safety of our participants and volunteers is the first priority," the Lone Star Chapter of the National MS Society said in a statement.

Organizers of one of the nation's largest such events hoped clearing weather forecast for Sunday would allow for the second half of the ride from La Grange to Austin.

It was the wettest April 17 on record in College Station, where 2.94 inches of rain Friday broke a mark set 30 years ago when 1.68 inches fell. Houston also set a record for the most rain for the day, with the 1.9 inches topping the old mark of 1.85 in 1992.

At least 10 inches of rain fell Friday in Colorado County, about 70 miles west of Houston, closing some roads. Hail measuring 1.75 inches in diameter was reported Friday night in Laredo, along with some street flooding in Zapata County in the Rio Grande Valley.

More heavy rain fell Saturday, and nearly all of East Texas and portions of South Texas were under some kind of threatening weather advisory with tornado warnings and watches and flash flood warnings and watches in place.

U.S. 87 south of Cuero, about 80 miles southeast of San Antonio, was closed by a flash flood Saturday. A tornado was spotted in a rural area near Marquez, about 60 miles southeast of Waco. Firefighters reported a barn was toppled by high winds near Rosebud in Milam County, about 35 miles southeast of Waco.

In Robertson County, between College Station and Waco, authorities said a possible tornado during a thunderstorm Saturday morning downed trees and power lines and left some windows broken in Franklin, the county seat.

I hope that call was important!

It said that they did a blood alcohol test, didn't say he was actually drinking.

So sad!

I live in Houston. This was just on our local morning news. Very, very sad. I'm a true believer in NOT using your cell phones at all while driving. If I'm not in the car w/Aggie while he's driving he pulls over to use his phone.

A while ago (about 4 years ago) while Aggie and I were on the freeway we saw an accident just like this happen right before our eyes. No one was hurt in that accident but it was something I'll never forget.

Here's what our local paper reported:

Driver may have been drunk, talking on phone
Bodies of 3 drowned boys pulled from Houston ditch; 2 girls believed swept away

Massive storms roared across Southeast Texas on Saturday, claiming the lives of five Houston children who drowned in a Lincoln MKS that plunged into high water.

After searching nearly three hours, rescue workers located the submerged car Saturday night, about 100 feet from where the driver lost control in the 2200 block of Greens Road. The car veered off the road at about 5 p.m., landing in a drainage ditch filled with 9 feet of water.

But the weather may not have been the only factor: Police suspect the driver, who they have identified as 32-year-old Chanton Jenkins, may have been drunk and were told he was talking on his cell phone when he lost control of the car, said HPD spokesman John Cannon.

Jenkins failed a field sobriety test and was taken into custody for a blood test. Another HPD spokesman, Kese Smith, said police planned to file at least one charge of intoxication manslaughter against Jenkins this afternoon.

“It’s just such a tragedy,” said Tywanna Harris, a relative of some of the children. “We’re just so heartbroken, and I’m at a loss for words.”

Dive team members have recovered three of the five children's bodies. They were boys ages 4, 7 and 11.

The bodies of two little girls — ages 1 and 3 — remain missing. Some of the car's windows were broken, making it possible that the bodies were swept away, officials said.

“The divers are going on feel for now because there is no visibility," Cannon said. "We won't know for 100 percent until the car is pulled out of the water."

A wrecker arrived and pulled the car out of the water around 3:45 a.m.

Officers also searched the grounds near the bayou with flashlights. Because of the size of the bodies and the amount of time that has lapsed, the bodies may be diffuclt to locate, Cannon said.

"There's really no telling where we will discover the bodies, if we even will," Cannon said.

The search will resume with an HPD helicopter later today.

Jenkins, his brother and his 10-year-old daughter narrowly escaped the vehicle. Police were told that Jenkins was also the father of three of the children who perished in the crash.

Relatives were shocked by the accident.

“It really hasn’t hit me yet,” said Travis Campbell, 24, an uncle to two of the boys. “I’m trying to stay calm and collected for my family.”

Hundreds of other Houston-area motorists were successfully rescued after their cars stalled during the flash floods.

Record rainfall left 20,000 homes in the area without electricity and forced hundreds of evacuations, including some in La Porte.

In Shoreacres, locals said water was lapping at the edges of houses.

“It’s definitely scary,” said Nancy Schnell, who has been living in an RV since Hurricane Ike destroyed her house last year. “I’m pretty sure my neighbors’ houses are flooded right now.”

Several communities were battered by huge downpours in a short length of time, exacerbating flash flooding concerns. Between 2:30 and 4 p.m., for instance, more than 6 inches of rain fell in Clear Creek.

Hobby Airport saw nearly 5 inches of rain by 5 p.m., a record for the day.
A rare type of storm

“People need to be very careful driving through high water,” said Francisco Sanchez, spokesman for the Harris County Office of Emergency Management. “There’s even some ponding on the freeways.”

The National Weather Service said the region’s severe weather was caused by moisture-rich air from the Gulf sweeping into a storm system.

“This type of storm system isn’t unheard of, but it’s something we might have once a year and then never want to see again,” said meteorologist Chris McKinney.

Southern Harris County appeared to have borne the brunt of the storm. The Pasadena school district reported a caved-in roof at one campus and water damage at three other buildings.

Workers found a 100-foot-by-60-foot roof collapse Saturday afternoon at a building on the campus of Beverly Hills Intermediate School. No one was injured, but the building is in danger of collapsing, officials said.

“It looks like we may have some buckling of the building,” Pasadena ISD spokeswoman Candace Ahlfinger said.

About 20,000 homes in the south of the county and Galveston County lost power at the height of the storm, according to CenterPoint Energy.

The weather also caused havoc at Hobby and Bush Intercontinental airports, where a few flights were canceled but many were delayed by up to seven hours.

The annual MS 150 bicycle tour with 13,000 participants had to be put off for a day because of the weather.

The 150-mile tour to raise money for multiple sclerosis was set to begin Saturday in Houston but is expected to begin today in La Grange, said ride spokeswoman Gena Hyde.

The Houston International Festival was also canceled Saturday. A few people gathered under a tent downtown to escape the rain, drinking beer and watching Irish-style music. One woman protected herself by wrapping a garbage bag around her body.

“You don’t want to close down, but stuff like this happens,” said Rusty Andrews, owner of the Mucky Duck .

Staff writers Brian Rogers and Jennifer Radcliffe contributed to this report, which contains material from the Associated Press.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...n/6380742.html

The Mucky Duck:

http://www.mcgonigels.com/

I just saw this on the news.. Tragic..

I wanted to add that we had a terrible rain storm yesterday and Friday. It almost looked like night time while the storms were going on. This may/not have attributed to the accident.

Tragic

Thats a lot of people, 2 adults & 6 kids under 11yrs of age, in a sedan.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/moms/6381800.html

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6383423.html