HARRIS COUNTY, Texas — A mother and her daughter were killed in a single-vehicle crash on US 90 near Uvalde Road Saturday afternoon, according to Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez.
Gonzalez said the crash involved a family of five, including a 26-year-old man and his wife, 25-year-old Tiffany Rodriguez. Their three children, a 5-year-old girl, a 2-year-old boy and a 2-month-old girl, were also in the car.
The sheriff said it appears the driver lost control of the vehicle while exiting the freeway, left the roadway and rolled over several times, which caused Rodriguez and her daughter, Ariella, to be thrown from the vehicle.
They were transported by Life Flight and were pronounced deceased at the hospital.
Gonzalez said it appears speed may have played a factor.
"According to one witness, they estimated that they didn’t think that they were gonna be able to navigate this curvature here. They estimate they were going around 80-85 miles per hour," Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez said all three children were restrained. Authorities later said they were in car seats. He said it doesn't appear that the adults were wearing seatbelts.
"That’s a standard, automatic thing everybody should do nowadays. She probably could have survived that crash," he said.
The other three were transported by ambulance. Gonzalez said they are expected to survive.
Gonzalez said 45 people have died on roads in unincorporated Harris County so far in 2023.
He said Sunday's loss of a young mother and her daughter should have never happened.
"It breaks my heart to see the Easter egg and the little shoes," he said.
Editor's note: Sheriff Gonzalez originally said that the deceased child was 6 years old and the other two children were 2-and-a-half years old and 4 months old. In a follow-up post, he said the deceased child was 5 years old and the surviving children are 2 years old and 2 months old.