WHITE OAK, Pa. — A community is in mourning after a woman was killed when a tree fell on her car while she was driving.
“I miss my best friend. We’re off today. I should be there, or we should be shopping. Christmas is in two days,” Lauren Snyder told Channel 11.
Lauren Snyder was planning to spend Christmas Eve with her best friend of 23 years, Keisha Fortner.
“We like the last-minute dashes, the thrill of shopping. We put stuff off last minute on purpose just because we like it,” she said
Snyder is now figuring out how to cope this holiday season after Fortner was killed in a freak accident over the weekend.
She was driving on Jacks Run Road in White Oak when a tree fell on top of her car.
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The two friends were together the night before at a Christmas party.
“We had a blast. She called me at like 9 in the morning the next day, and was like, ‘Thanks so much for making me go out,’ because she wasn’t going to go. I had so much fun.”
Channel 11 has reached out to the Borough of White Oak to find out whose responsibility it is to take care of those trees — and to make sure Jack’s Run Road is safe for drivers.
A spokesperson said it’s still “under investigation.”
“There are questions that are going to need answered. Directly to the family...her husband, her mother, her children…they didn’t deserve this. She didn’t deserve this,” Snyder said.
For the next few days, Snyder is focusing on being there for her best friend’s family.
“We are still going to be with them. We are going to celebrate Keisha the way she’d want. We are going to sing songs, be loud and do what she would want us to do,” Snyder told Channel 11.
The victim’s husband was also in the car. He survived and is still in the hospital.
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