7 of 8 People Killed in Head-On Crash Were Related

They died when driver veered into wrong lane
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 16, 2018 2:23 AM CDT
Head-On Crash Kills 7 Family Members
This photo provided by Jessie Tate shows, from left, Isabella Boquet, 11, Elisabeth Boquet, 8, mother Erika Boquet, 29, and Tytis Boquet, 6.   (Jessie Tate via AP)

A family in Washington state is mourning seven family members—including five children—who died in a horrific crash while on their way to Las Vegas for an end-of-summer trip. Police say the seven died near Burns, Ore., when the driver of a 1999 Toyota 4Runner crossed the center line and hit their 2016 Toyota 4Runner head-on, the Oregonian reports. Police have identified the victims as driver Erika Boquet, 29, and children Isabella Boquet, 11, Elisabeth Boquet, 8, and Tytis Boquet, 6. Kyla Marie Brown, 28, and children Arianna Marie Brown, 10, and Xavier King Johnson, 2, were also killed, as was 48-year-old Mark Robert Rundell, the driver of the other SUV.

Oregon State Police say the seven relatives died around 10am Monday when Rundell's SUV suddenly veered into their lane. It was the state's deadliest crash since a tour bus crash killed nine people in 2012. It "took my family, all my family away," Jessie Tate, Erika Boquet's brother, tells Q13. Her grandfather, Frank Williams, says Boquet "was doing all she could to raise not only her kids but help the entire community of Tacoma" and the death is "hard to fathom." A GoFundMe fundraiser to bring the bodies back to Washington has raised more than $30,000. (Last year, an alleged drunk driver killed a woman and four children in a head-on crash in the state.)

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