Mother asks help after daughter, 4, killed in rear-end collision
Charges were pending last week against a Dallas man who reportedly may have been distracted by a dropped phone before his truck rearended a van and killed a 4-year-old girl in southwest Paulding Tuesday.
Alora Rose Sell died after a pickup truck struck the van in which she was riding near Union Elementary School in southwest Paulding Aug. 14 about 4 p.m.
She was the granddaughter RI D FRXQW\ 6KHULII¶V 2I¿FH jailer, the agency reported.
The Georgia State Patrol reported Alora’s mother, Haley Borders Sell, 34, of Temple, was driving the 2007 Honda Odyssey van which was stopped for a left hand turn in a northbound lane on the two-lane road.
As Sell waited for RQFRPLQJ WUDI¿F WR SDVV WR turn into a residential driveway on Ga. Hwy. 101 near Honeysuckle Lane, a 1997 Dodge Ram truck driven by Tyler Arron Turner of Dallas struck the van from behind, the report stated.
The impact sent the van forward and off the right side of the highway where it struck a tree and stopped, the report stated.
Both the victim and her brother were in child safety seats when the wreck occurred, a state patrol report indicated.
Haley Sell and Alora’s 3-year-old brother, Daniel, were transported by ambulance and treated at Floyd Medical Center in Rome, the state patrol reported.
Turner, 20, told investigators he had dropped his phone and a bottle to the ÀRRU RI KLV YHKLFOH DQG DV he leaned down to pick them up, “he noticed (the victim’s van) stopped,” the report stated. He said he attempted to stop but was unable to do so before his truck struck the van in the rear, according to the report.
Sell wrote about the experience on a GoFundMe page titled “Alora Rose Gained Her Wings” seeking donations for “funeral, medical, DQG ¿QDQFLDO QHHGV ´
She wrote that she had just picked up her children from her parent’s house when they were struck from behind “from a speeding vehicle which killed my daughter pretty much on impact.”
“She was barely alive as my dad pulled her from my van and I administered CPR while my other children watched,” Sell wrote.
“This has been a nightmare that I just want to wake from. I’m banged up pretty bad, my vehicle totaled, but worse of all, I’m planning a funeral” instead of a birthday party for the girl, Sell wrote.
The GoFundMe page, https://www.gofundme. com/alora-rose-gained-herwings, reportedly had pledges of almost $7,000 toward a $20,000 goal today.
Charges in the incident were pending the completion of a follow-up investigation by the Georgia State Patrol Specialized Collision Reconstruction Team, a spokesman said.