A 17-year-old South Carolina mother died after a large bird smashed into the windshield of a pickup truck she was riding in, causing the driver to lose control and crash into a tree.
High school junior Abbigail “Grace” Callaham was pronounced dead at the scene in Anderson County, SC Thomas Kennedy, her boyfriend and the father of the couple’s four-month-old child, was driving and was listed in critical condition Wednesday.
The couple was on their way around 11 a.m. Tuesday to pick up their daughter from kindergarten at Belton-Honea Path High School when suddenly a “bird flew out of a tree,” a witness told police.
“Preliminary investigation indicates the victim was a passenger in a Chevrolet S10 traveling on Clamp Drive when a large bird, possibly a turkey, flew out of the forest and hit the windshield of the truck,” the coroner wrote in a press release obtained by the News & Observer. “The driver then lost control of the vehicle, ran off the right side of the roadway where he overcorrected, crossed the center line and struck a tree on the left side of the roadway.”
Callaham was not wearing a seat belt and died of “multiple traumatic injuries,” the medical examiner’s office said.
The school held a vigil for the two students on Wednesday and sent condolences and promised to have extra counselors on hand “to provide grief support to students and staff, the district said in a statement. “Please keep Grace’s family in your thoughts and prayers as they navigate this difficult time.”
The community mourned the loss. A witness who first reported the crash was a fellow student who was driving behind the coupleCoroner Greg Shore told WYFF-TV.
“Her dad was sad,” County Coroner Greg Shore told WSPA-TV. “Abbigail’s 12-year-old sister was also there. It just breaks our heart to see them suffer like that. It’s just a tragedy.”