Middletown victims of fatal I-75 crash ‘were always together’

Grandmother, mother and son remembered as special family.

A longtime family friend of three Middletown victims of a fatal crash on Interstate 75 in the Dayton area is remembering them as a special family.

Betty Davis, 57, Amanda Kidwell, 36, and Brayden Jennings, 6, died Friday in crash that happened just before 10 p.m. in Moraine. The grandmother, mother and son were in a vehicle traveling south near mile marker 48 when they were struck by a semi truck going north that entered into the southbound lane, according to Moraine Police Sgt. Chris Selby.

Karon Brooks told our news partner WHIO-TV she knew the victims well.

“She was the sweetest person,” Brooks said. “She would do anything for anybody. She raised her daughter on her own.”

Brooks said she’ll never forget the mother-and-daughter duo.

“Her and Amanda were always together,” she said. “They were like more than best friends. You seen one, you seen the other one.”

Brooks told WHIO she cried all day Saturday and can’t seem to shake the image of the semi truck out of her head, let alone make sense of the tragedy.

“She had a little bitty car and the whole front end of that semi smashed (it) in. I just, I can’t imagine it, if they seen it coming,” she said. “It’s a great loss, great loss. It was a special family, for sure.”

She said she’s hoping and praying that Kidwell’s 8-yearold daughter pulls through and is released from the hospital’s intensive care unit, where she was in critical condition.

The driver of the semitrailer was taken to Kettering Medical Center in Kettering in unknown condition.

The case is under investigation by the Moraine Police Department, which told this news outlet on Sunday that more details regarding the crash would not be released until today.

Contact this reporter at 513-755-5126 or email Eric. Schwartzberg@cmg.com. Twitter: @eschwartzberg