One of the most lethal stretches of roadway in rural Tarrant County claimed another life Friday, this time a model senior at Joshua High School.
“She was the all-American girl,” JHS assistant principal Stan McVey said. “She was smart, cute, talked to everyone and an all-around great girl.”
Heidi Hunt, 17, of Cleburne was killed when the Toyota Echo she was riding in with another JHS senior was struck at about 4:55 p.m. in the 5700 block of FM 1187 in rural Crowley. It was almost the exact location – within the same block – where earlier this year Burleson resident Wanda Whitaker, 54, and her granddaughter, Angel Nunes, 9, were killed in a two-vehicle accident.
Like that accident then, on Friday the vehicle Hunt was traveling in with a friend inexplicably turned into the path of a Pontiac Trans Am traveling westbound on FM 1187.
Hunt was instantly killed by the collision, McVey said, and the other student in the crash is expected to return Monday to JHS. She broke her pelvis and lacerated her kidney, McVey said.
“Word of this spread fast through social media and I believe that helped our students,” McVey said.
It is the first time in a very long time – if ever – that a student attending JHS has died, McVey said, although Jaci Mitchell was critically injured in a car crash last year and a staff member was in a similar crash while a student at the school.
Students gathered Tuesday
morning for a memorial service in honor of Hunt in the school’s auditorium.
“The entire auditorium was filled,” McVey said.
Hunt and her friend were traveling to a youth ministry leadership event, McVey said.
“The car hydroplaned just before it got to that spot, they lost control and were hit,” McVey said, referring to one of the most dangerous blocks in rural Tarrant County. “That is just a bad stretch of road. It seems to be very dangerous.”
Students returned Monday to JHS, a majority already with the somber news that one of their senior classmates had died over the weekend. Many wore pink shirts in honor of Heidi – it was her favorite color – and posters were hung with words like “R.I.P. Heidi” and “Pray for the Hunt Family.”
She’s being remembered as an active student who played sports and was a peer leader to younger children in the school district.
“These two girls were two good examples of what youth should aspire to be,” McVey said.
Hunt was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident. The driver of the Toyota was airlifted to a Fort Worth hospital. McVey and Superintendent Fran Marek visited the student Saturday afternoon.
“Once we found out what had happened and that Heidi had passed away, we began mobilizing people,” McVey said.
That included cheerleaders painting signs that adorn the hallways at JHS in her honor, and others that read “Get well Ashley,” for the driver of the vehicle. Cheerleaders also made ribbons many students purchased to financially help the families of the two seniors.
One token that made an impact on McVey was a song a fellow student wrote for Heidi.
“We had a student write a song for her over the weekend,” he said.
The driver and passenger of the Pontiac were also taken to local hospitals.
Article source: http://www.joshuastar.net/news/ci_21600080
