Family Mourns Loss Of Young Girl Killed In Crash
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) - A family is mourning the loss of a young girl killed in a horrific car crash in northwest Miami-Dade.
Tuesday morning would be the last time Neima Philogene would see her little sister Lapsca, a middle school student at Thomas Jefferson.
"I'm by myself," she said.
Neima said she was getting on the bus when she got the news that her only sibling was gone, killed in a three car crash at NW 163rd Street and North Miami Avenue, just seconds from their home.
"The police told me I know it's gonna hurt, I'm going to talk to you like an adult, your sister was in an accident this morning," she recalled.
Police say Lapsca was in sitting in the back of a Honda CRV, her family upfront when it collided with two sedans. While investigators are still unsure who's at fault, Neima tells us her sister wasn't wearing her seat belt.
"In the front, we always have to wear our seatbelt but when we're in the back they never told us we had to," she said
The two adults in the CRV were taken to Aventura Hospital in critical condition. Two adults who were in one of the sedans were taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital North with non-life threatening injuries. Three other adults were treated on the scene.
Miami-Dade Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho offered his condolences after hearing what had happened.
My heartfelt condolences to the family of Lapsca Philogene. We will have grief counselors at her school to assist her classmates in coping with the pain of this loss. Child killed, 7 hurt after 3 vehicles crash in Northwest Miami-Dade https://t.co/UcyZP5dab0
— Alberto M. Carvalho (@MiamiSup) September 19, 2018
The two adults in the CRV were taken to Aventura Hospital in critical condition. The three adults in the Maxima were treated on the scene and then went to Jackson North to be checked out.
Crisis counselors were at the girl's school on Wednesday talking with teachers. They will be back on Thursday when the students return.