Baby Killed After Dad Makes Way for Funeral Procession

1-year-old Jaylah Hart died day after truck slammed into SUV she was riding in
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 2, 2016 12:09 PM CDT
Baby Killed After Dad Makes Way for Funeral Procession
Jaylah Hart   (GoFundMe)

A young dad trying to do the polite thing by moving over for a funeral procession is now mourning his 1-year-old daughter, who died after a car accident in North Carolina, People reports. Silas Hart, 21, was driving his Chevy Equinox SUV in Lincolnton on Friday afternoon when he noticed a line of funerary cars, so he slowed down and tried to ease over to the shoulder to make way for them, WCNC notes. Suddenly, a Chevy Silverado truck driven by 38-year-old William "Karey" Jones II slammed into the back of Hart's vehicle. "We didn't hear any screeching of any brakes or anything," a witness tells WSOC-TV. "Just a large crash and the woman was screaming, 'My baby, my baby.'" Per a Lincolnton Police Department press release, little Jaylah was unresponsive at the scene, the Lincoln Times-News reports.

She was rushed to the ER at a Lincolnton hospital, then airlifted to a children's hospital in Charlotte, where she was pronounced dead Saturday evening, a GoFundMe page set up in her honor notes. Jaylah's mom, 21-year-old Kathryn Reep, was also in the Equinox and suffered minor injuries. Police say charges are pending against Jones. Jaylah's family says her organs were donated, saving the lives of three other kids, per WSOC. "Our beautiful daughter Jaylah Kassidy Hart is now walking the streets of gold and hasn't got a care in the world," her parents write on GoFundMe. "We believe she was put here to save other [families] from going through what we had to over come. Giving other kids the chance to fulfill life to the fullest and enjoy all that life has to offer." (Fire ants killed a woman in Alabama planning her mom's funeral.)

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