A preschool teacher is dead and multiple others injured after a multi-car crash outside a school in Texas.
The tragic incident occurred on Thursday, Dec. 19, as parents picked up their students after a holiday performance at the Excelled Montessori Plus, a preschool and daycare in Bexar County.
Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said during a news conference that “one of the parents, it appears, loaded her children into her vehicle and for whatever reason, accelerated into the building, into another car.”
“She, in turn, pushed that other car, and then both cars ended up hitting a fence where on the other side of that fence, several children were playing, and one faculty member was there with the children as well,” said Salazar.
Salazar said the collision caused the teacher, later identified by Excelled Montessori Plus as 22-year-old Alexia Rosales, to be pinned under one of the vehicles “for some time.”
“Fire was able to get out here, and they were able to lift that vehicle using a hydraulic lift,” said Salazar, but Rosales died at the scene.
The sheriff said that at least five children were transported to the hospital in various conditions. KENS 5 and KEYE-TV report that another teacher was also transported to the hospital for medical care. Three children were treated and released from the hospital on Thursday afternoon, per KENS 5.
According to a press release from Bexar County Emergency Services District 4 Fire & Rescue, three additional patients refused transport, and 10 others were triaged and treated by responders at the scene.
As for the condition of the parent who accelerated into the building, Salazar said during the news conference that “she is okay.”
“She does have a past medical history that may have contributed to this. But, at this point, we don’t believe that it has anything to do with intoxication or any sort of criminality,” he said.
“It’s a possibility there may have been some sort of a medical issue that took place, and so at this point, I don’t know that there’ll be any criminal charges being brought,” continued Salazar. “At this point it appears to be just a very tragic accident.”
Rosales is remembered by Excelled Montessori Plus as a “bright light” whose “smile, laughter, and boundless love for the children and everyone around her made our school feel like a second home.”
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“Her impact on our community is immeasurable, and her absence leaves a hole in our hearts,” the school, which made a GoFundMe to raise funds for her family, said in its announcement.
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