A young mother driving with three small children in a white passenger car apparently lost control of her vehicle on Tuesday. Her car had been traveling eastbound on Louetta near Terranova just after 5 p.m. when it suddenly swerved into the eastbound lane. An oncoming black SUV collided with the mother’s vehicle in a side impact.

The mother died at the scene. Life Flight carried a young daughter to a downtown hospital where she died overnight. Two other small children remain hospitalized, but are expected to recover. The driver of the SUV received less severe injuries from the crash.

Investigators examining skid marks say that it does not appear that the mother was speeding at the time of the collision. But they do not know why she lost control of her car. They say that all the children were properly restrained in the car at the time of the accident. New accounts of theaccident report that authorities were in the process of notifying the husband and father of the victims.

Our hearts sympathize with the losses of the man and his two surviving children who may not yet know of the tragedies. Few events hurt worse than losing family members before their time.That an unexplained loss of control led to the catastrophic wreck makes the tragedy more harrowing.

Side impact collisions cause more than their share of accident injuries and fatalities. Side impact wrecks account for almost 1/3 of car accident fatalities, yet they only represent about 15% of car accidents. That the mother took care to properly restrain her children in the back seat may have saved the lives of her other two young ones, for which we are glad. Texas roads have claimed far too many young lives and their parents this summer.

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