BOWMAN, S.C. (AP) – A mother and her two young children have died after their car hit an alligator on Interstate 95 in South Carolina, authorities said.
Orangeburg County Chief Deputy Coroner Sean Fogle said 24-year-old Amber Stanley, her 4-year-old son Jack and 2-year-old daughter Autumn all died from burns after their car hit a tree and caught fire after hitting the alligator.
Highway Patrol Lance Cpl. Judd Jones said the alligator was crossing the northbound lanes of I-95 near the Interstate 26 exit when Stanley’s Kia Soul hit the animal around 12:50 a.m. Monday.
Fogle said the family was from Callahan, Florida.
Josh Stanley said he’s the family’s lone survivor and was out of town when his wife and kids were heading for a weekend getaway in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
“It’s been hard. I mean, I know it happened. I’m still kind of processing though,” Stanley told CBS Jacksonville, Florida, affiliate WJAX-TV.
He added, “I’ll be walking around and I’ll just, like, see something out of the corner of my eye, I go, ‘that’s Amber,’ and I know it’s not, but it’s just the first thing my brain goes to. Or, some kids say ‘dad’ or something.”
