Provo Police: Still unclear what caused crash that killed young siblings

PROVO, Utah – As the Hidalgo family begins to prepare funeral services for two of their three young children, police continue their investigation into the auto-pedestrian crash that also left the driver dead.

“It’s a grieving community,” said Provo Police Det. Shad LeFevre. “These things shouldn’t happen.”

It was just after 8 a.m. Monday when an SUV traveled onto the sidewalk near the intersection of 700 North and 800 East and struck a 10-year-old boy and his 9-year-old sister who were on their way to school. They were later pronounced dead at the hospital.

The SUV also traveled through a yard, brushing by a chimney, hitting a car parked in a driveway, and finally smashing into the front porch of a second home. The impact also ruptured a gas meter.

UPDATE: Two children, driver killed in Provo auto-pedestrian crash

LeFevre said police are waiting for the medical examiner to determine a cause of death for the driver of the SUV: 59-year-old Darren Albertson of Provo. One main question is when Albertson died.

“Was it before he crashed? Was it during the crash? These are things we can’t determine,” LeFevre said. “We’ll have to wait for the medical examiner to give us that report.”

A woman who lives in the home where Albertson’s SUV crashed said she ran outside and found him unconscious.

“[I] tried getting him to wake up, shouting at him,” said Sabrina Pendleton. “I’m trained in CPR, so I tried getting him out of the car to do CPR, but he was too big for me to get out of the car.”

Neighbors on Tuesday left flowers, cards, candles, balloons, and stuffed animals at a makeshift memorial for the victims.

“Life is so fragile,” said Carolina Galindo, who stopped by with her family to leave flowers picked from her garden. “It’s a way to show them that we’re with them in their sadness and their loss. To show that they’re not alone.”

Galindo said she didn’t know the victims but heard the sirens Monday morning and then learned the devastating details.

“I’d like them to know that we’re with them,” she said. That we’re so sorry and we wish we could help in some way to make them feel better.”

Police say it may take some time to get all the answers.

“We’ve got to be patient,” LeFevre went on to say. “We want answers just as much as anybody else wants answers, but we got to let that investigation, and the circumstances, we’ve got to let that investigation take its place so we can understand a better picture.”

A GoFundMe* campaign was set up to help pay for the funeral costs of the two children.

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