4 children thrown from car and killed in crash on I-24

Editor’s Note: Robertson County emergency officials initially reported six children were killed in the Sunday morning crash. Monday morning, the Tennessee Highway Patrol clarified six females, two adults and four children, died in the crash.

PLEASANT VIEW, Tenn. (WSMV/Gray News) – The Tennessee Highway Patrol is investigating a crash that killed six people, including four children, early Sunday morning.

According to Tennessee Highway Patrol, the victims were riding in a Toyota Camry on I-24 West around 2 a.m. when it crashed with a BMW.

The Camry left the road and flipped on the shoulder. Four children, all girls between the ages of 1-12, were ejected from the car when it rolled.

Authorities said the children were lying helpless on the side of the road and all died as a result of the crash.

The driver, 21-year-old Tania Rodriguez, and passenger 35-year-old Rina Reyes were also both killed in the crash.

“These are things sometimes I don’t believe people are necessarily meant to see as human beings,” Emergency Medical Services Director Brent Dyer said. “It’s one of the hardest things we’ll ever do, as anybody in emergency services, is to realize that you can’t do something for a child.”

Dyer said two medical helicopters and more than four different county emergency crews rushed to the scene.

Passenger Saira Reyes, 34, was flown to the hospital with serious injuries.

“Sometimes you have to swallow back a few tears and catch your breath just a little bit,” Dyer said.

Troopers said crews found the driver of a pickup truck crashed into a road barrier near the crash scene, but they have not said how the two events are connected.

“Something like this would shock anybody. We are still human,” Dyer said.

Dyer said his heart breaks for the children.

“They are the pure innocence of this world laying there and you want to do as much as you can for them,” he said.

Troopers have not said whether the passengers in the Camry were wearing seat belts or properly restrained, but Dyer is reminding drivers to make sure children buckled in correctly.

“I beg people to put your children in the proper restraint devices and I beg everyone driving on the road to think about the outcome of impatience and the outcome of intolerance,” Dyer said.

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