Teen fights for life after tragic crash

DARIEN, N.Y. (WIVB) - A 16-year-old girl is fighting for her life at ECMC after a devastating car accident that killed her mother and injured her father and another driver on Sunday.

Sheriff’s deputies are trying to figure out why a car swerved into on-coming traffic and struck a family’s SUV head-on in Darien.

The Gleason family planned to visit family on Sunday but South Buffalo native Audrey Gleason never returned home. The 55-year-old woman was traveling with her husband Jack and 16-year-old daughter Kelly in the Town of Darien when another vehicle smashed into their vehicle.

“Shortly after 3 p.m. we were dispatched to a report of a motor vehicle accident with injuries,” said Genesee County Sheriff’s Deputy Matthew Fleming.

Fleming says a white SUV carrying the Gleason family was traveling east on Route 20. A black SUV traveling west stopped to make a left hand turn. But a red sedan, behind the black vehicle, swerved into the left lane, smashing into the Gleason’s white SUV head on.

All three were taken to ECMC. Audrey died at the hospital. Her daughter has two broken legs and underwent surgery for a perforated bowel. Her husband has several broken vertebrae.

Fleming said, “At this point we're still looking into all of the reasons everything happened the way they did.”

Investigators are getting witness statements Monday. They also plan to pull the black box from the vehicles within the next day or so, to determine how fast the vehicles were going at the time of the collision and if the brakes were used.

No charges have been filed against the driver of the red sedan.

Fleming said, “It's likely tickets will be issued however the recipients of those tickets that's still going to be pending further investigation. But likely in an accident of this nature, especially with serious injuries there will be summons issued."