WASHINGTON D.C., DC — While walking on what was supposed to be a normal Wednesday morning, a father and his two daughters were hit by a Jeep while crossing the street.
D.C. Police said Tyrone Belton and his daughters, Faith and Heavyn, had the right of way while they were walking in the crosswalk at Wheeler Road and Mississippi Avenue, Southeast in Congress Heights. When the driver was turning, she hit all three of them.
Belton said he and his daughters are traumatized by the whole ordeal. He said he’s walked this area dozens of times and never thought he or his children would get hit by a car.
“That was one of the most scariest things of my life because I literally thought my kids were dead because they wasn’t even moving,” Belton said.
Belton has a broken ankle, his eight-year-old daughter, Faith has a broken leg. Six-year-old Heavyn will need multiple surgeries to repair the damage to her face. Belton said the crash nearly peeled the skin off of her face.
Belton said when the driver of the Jeep hit him, he thought his daughters were okay, but they’d also been hit.
“I just so happened to look to my left and the front of the Jeep just whammed right into me and it just, it took me.”
Belton said his adrenaline kicked in; he didn’t even realize his ankle was broken after he saw his children lying in the street.
“It's like she (Faith) was like stuck in, like, some type of mode or something . . . her eyes were just wide open. My second daughter (Heavyn), her face was hanging down and you could see her skull and honestly, I did not know what to do.” Belton added.
“It's really hard to even think that when she goes to school or something, people might try to pick on her or tease her and they don't even know why the hell her face looks like that in the first place. My oldest daughter can't even walk. She basically got to sit home in the bed all day until her leg is better,” Belton said.
Belton said he doesn’t understand how the driver didn’t see them in the crosswalk. He said they waited until the walking signals alerted them to cross.
“The two lanes that she was supposed to turn into were behind us. So how did you hit us when we're in another two lanes that cars are going the opposite direction from you? So, how did you hit us?” he questioned.
Belton said he and his children will no longer walk to their destinations.
“This has traumatized them, my kids don't even want to be outside, even when we left the hospital, they don't want to be out there,” he explained.
Belton says he and his children are going to need therapy to cope with what happened. He also wanted to thank the many people who stopped and called the police to help them when they needed it the most. If you’d like to help them out while they’re recovering, here is their GoFundMe.
The driver, in this case, was arrested on scene and charged with a number of crimes including driving without a license.