Teen mom killed in tragic freak accident after leaving high school to pick up four-month-old daughter from daycare
A teenage mother died in a tragic accident that also left her boyfriend in critical condition as they left high school to pick up their four-month-old daughter from daycare.
Abbigail “Grace” Callaham, 17, and her boyfriend, Thomas Kennedy, were on their way to daycare after returning home early from Belton-Honea Path High School in South Carolina just after 11 a.m. Tuesday when a “large bird, possibly a turkey” flew out of the woods and hit their windshield, the Anderson County coroner’s office reported.
The impact caused Kennedy to lose control of the vehicle and “travel off the right side of the highway, where he overcorrected, crossed the center line and struck a tree on the left side of the road,” coroner Greg Shore said in a news release.
Abbigail Callaham, 17, (right) died Tuesday in a tragic accident that also left her boyfriend, Thomas Kennedy (left), in critical condition
The Anderson County coroner says the couple was on their way to pick up their 4-month-old daughter from daycare when a “large bird, possibly a turkey” flew out of the woods and hit their windshield, causing Kennedy to lose control.
Callaham was not wearing a seat belt at the time and was pinned to her seat by the tree. She was pronounced dead at the scene from multiple traumatic injuries.
Kennedy was meanwhile taken to a hospital in critical condition, according to Fox Carolina.
But he was reportedly able to talk to emergency workers when they arrived on the scene, WYFF 4 reports.
Kennedy could have talked to emergency workers on the scene
“It’s just a tragedy,” Shore told the local news station. “We’re all devastated by the circumstances.
He too told WSPA that Callaham’s father was “saddened” by the news and that her 12-year-old sister “was also at the scene.”
“It breaks our hearts to see them suffer like this,” the coroner said.
The coroner said Kennedy overcorrected and crashed into a tree, pinning Callaham in her seat
Anderson School District Two, which includes Belton-Honea Path High School, said grief counselors are now available to all students and staff.
“Please keep Grace’s family in your thoughts and prayers as they go through this difficult time,” the school district said. wrote on Facebook.
It was also said that an event would be held to “pray for these two students and their families.”
“We talk a lot at Anderson District Two about how we’re a family. It’s times like this that we can come together and remind each other that we’re a support system, that we love each other, and that we’re just here for each other,” Principal Jason Johns told Fox Carolina.