A tragic truck wreck apparently occurred while the driver’s 11-year-old daughter was behind the wheel, according to police in Howe, TX.

Killed in the wreck Friday, April 25, were Luis Gonzalez, 35, his daughter, Nicole, 11, and his son, Nicholas, 3, all from Muldrow, OK.

At about 2:45 a.m., as the Freightliner Century Classic was approaching a bridge on U.S. 75 overpass over Farmington Road, the truck, which police estimate was traveling near 70 mph, struck a guardrail.

“The 11-year-old was driving as far as we can tell,” Howe police Sgt. John Cherry told Land Line.

The father, who was working for OK Transportation, was apparently on the mattress in the sleeper berth at the time.

It is not clear why he was in the bunk. Some media outlets reported he was “getting some rest.” However, Cherry confirmed the father had undergone heart surgery in the past, and that, according to his widow, he did not feel well when he left the family home to start the run.

The truck hit the guardrail with such force that 150 to 160 feet of the rail wrapped around the tractor. The rig then hit a concrete wall that was part of the bridge, moving it a foot one direction and eight inches in another.

There were no skid marks, indicating the brakes were never engaged.

“The truck was running on cruise control, and she had the steering wheel in her hands,” Cherry said. “As far as I can tell, because there were not skid marks … she wasn’t able to hit the brakes. She probably could not reach them. It was probably on cruise control, and they had no chance to hit the brakes or anything.”

After the initial collision, the truck rolled down the hill onto the road below, bursting into flames.

A passing 18-wheeler saw the flame-covered wreck at the bottom of the bridge and called police. A Howe city officer was nearby, and was able to get to the site within minutes. By then, it was too late for the three people in the truck.

“This was a total. I had a motor and a frame left; everything else was gone,” Cherry said. “You could tell by just that much damage it was a hell of an impact.

“They were probably knocked unconscious if they weren’t killed by blunt force at that time,” he said. “It’s hard to really explain unless you were there looking at it, because the force of this was just tremendous.”

The driver’s seat was completely burned away, but Nicole’s body was found in the driver’s position, her hands still gripping the steering wheel, The Associated Press reported. None of the three victims were wearing a seat belt.

Police are not sure at this point how far the child drove the rig before the crash.

The father had brought the rig and its load home to Muldrow from Alma, MI, on April 24, AP reported, but he left home that night with the two children. What happened in between there and Howe remains a mystery. But it has had an enormous impact on those who witnessed the result.

“It was a horrible, horrible wreck,” Cherry said. “It has affected the first officer on the scene, he was there nearly immediately, and it has affected him seeing the baby.

“And I’ll also admit it has affected me really bad,” he said. “I’ve got a 2 ½ year old, and when you see something like that, that’s what you see is your own. You see the faces that you know instead of what you don’t know. It has affected all of us.”

--by Mark H. Reddig, associate editor

Mark Reddig can be reached at mreddig@landlinemag.com.