Pothabathula Family.Photo:Suneetha Gudipalli/GoFundMe
Suneetha Gudipalli/GoFundMe
A Texas teenager has been charged with multiple counts of manslaughter in connection with a December car crash that killed a family of six, according to reports.
On Dec. 26, Johnson County law enforcement said that around 4 p.m. local time, 17-year-old Luke Resecker was allegedly driving his 2014 Chevy Silverado south on U.S. Highway 67 near County Road 1119 in a no-passing zone, perCBS News Texas. The teenager allegedly entered the northbound lane and then crashed head-on into an oncoming Honda Odyssey, killing six of the seven passengers.
Luke Resecker.Texas DPS
Texas DPS
According toNBC DFW, Resecker was deemed unfit to be booked at the Johnson County Jail due to his medical condition.
CBS News Texas reported that the six people killed in the crash were 28-year-old Rushil Barri of Irving, Texas; Naveena Potabathula, 36, her parents Nageswararao Ponnada, 64, and Sitamahalakshmi Ponnada, 60, as well as her children Krithik Potabathula, 10, and Nishidha Potabathula, 9, all of Alpharetta, Ga.
Lokesh Potabathula — 43-year-old cousin to Barri and husband and father to Naveena, Krithik and Nishidha — was the sole survivor of the crash and is now in critical condition, according to the outlet.
A friend of the family who spoke withCBS News Texassaid that the group was headed home from a day at the Fossil Rim Wildlife Center after Christmas, and were on their way home at the time of the crash.
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“We were playing with them, we had good dinner, we had good Christmas party and we get a call saying they are no more,” Ayyappala Bandaru, Barri’s friend and roommate said in an interview. “How can we even digest that?”
“Just in a snap, his family is vanished,” he added.
According to Bandaru, Potabathula isstill in critical conditionand is not yet aware that his family has died. Friends and family are now working to get the bodies back to India, their home country, he added.
AGoFundMehas been started to pay for the family’s medical and funeral expenses. It has raised over $400,000 of its $500,000 goal as of Friday evening.
source: people.com
