By Scott Goldstein and Craig Civale
The Dallas Morning News
DALLAS — Two people were killed in a fiery accident Wednesday afternoon when a truck tumbled 14 feet over a Woodall Rodgers Freeway ramp and crushed a car passing underneath, police said.
David Simonelli, 38, the truck driver, and Ashley Parra, 20, were pronounced dead at the scene of the accident shortly before 3 p.m. along Continental Avenue, below the ramp that leads onto northbound Interstate 35E, police said.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Dallas police Sgt. Gil Cerda said. “Another vehicle falling on your vehicle as you’re traveling is just unbelievable.”
Susan Castro learned of her granddaughter’s death Wednesday evening when Dallas police came to her home.
“She had good grades, she had a lot of potential and she was going to grow up and be somebody someday, and now she’s gone,” Ms. Castro said of Ms. Parra, a student at the University of North Texas.
Mr. Simonelli, of Bedford, had been working for Texas Land & Air Co. for about a month, said Todd Bennett, the company’s chief executive officer.
“My heart and prayers go out to the families involved,” Mr. Bennett said.
Though the accident remains under investigation, police said it appears the truck’s load of metal piping shifted as it rounded the curved ramp. The truck fell over the barrier on the ramp and slammed into the outer concrete wall of I-35E on the way down.
The gray Ford Focus was headed east on Continental Avenue at that moment, police said.
“Just a 10th of a second from it not happening to her,” said Dallas police Sgt. Johnnie Harris. “She never knew what hit her.”
Mr. Simonelli was thrown from his vehicle and was dead on the street when police arrived. Initial reports that three people were killed proved incorrect several hours later, when police and firefighters were able to free the car from under the truck.
Police said they were investigating the possibility that speed was a factor in the crash.
“Obviously he was going too fast for his load,” Sgt. Harris said. “It doesn’t matter what his speed was, it was too fast to go around that curve.”
Ms. Castro said her granddaughter was on her way to work at a downtown restaurant. She grew concerned when she learned Ms. Parra did not show up for work and heard reports of the accident on TV.
A graduate of Townview Magnet Center in Dallas, Ms. Parra had spent two years at Southern Methodist University before transferring to UNT, Ms. Castro said.
In a 2005 Viewpoints column in The Dallas Morning News, Ms. Parra wrote about a senior year trip to Washington, D.C., where she attended sessions with several national figures.
“I have always been an involved student, especially with youth programs in Dallas, but my time with the World Affairs Council took my community involvement to the next level,” she wrote.
“The youth of today must educate themselves on world issues because we are the generation that will shape tomorrow.”