A 39-year-old Dekalb County, Alabama mother and her eight-year-old daughter died thirty minutes apart in two separate accidents, on the same highway, and close to their home.

Head-on collision kills Alabama mother, injures other parties

Julia Yates Patterson was driving her Ford Explorer car on the Alabama 117 highway on Tuesday afternoon. According to a report by AL.com, at 3 p.m. Patterson’s vehicle was involved in a head-on collision with a Dodge Ram. According to State trooper Curtis Summerville, Patterson was alone in the vehicle at the time and she was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident.

Reportedly the driver of the Dodge Ram and a passenger in the vehicle were injured and taken to Erlanger Hospital.

Daughter killed while crossing the same street after leaving school bus

Roughly 30 minutes after her mother died in the head-on collision, eight-year-old Elizabeth “Libby” Patterson was climbing off her school bus on her way home. She was then hit by a car while on a crossing on that very same street. The Times Free Press reports that the driver in that incident was not injured, but Libby was pronounced dead at the scene from her injuries.

Coroner identifies the Alabama mother and daughter

It was Dekalb County Coroner Tom Wilson that had the job of identifying the two deceased as being mother and daughter.

He told reporters that this was a terrible thing to happen, adding that both accidents happened so close to each other and to their home. According to a family member, Libby had celebrated her eighth birthday just days before she was killed.

Friends of the family set up a fundraising account on YouCaring to raise money to help Julia’s husband and Libby’s father, Kevin Patterson.

On the donation page, they say there will be a lot of expense involved and they don’t want Kevin to have to worry about that. The friends want him to have time to grieve and to stay away from work to heal. At time of writing, the fundraising campaign has raised $8,541 of the $10,000 goal.
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