DETROIT (WXYZ) — “She’s very loving, she loves kids, she loves being around people," Tracy Hart said of her daughter Sarah Robertson. "She makes everybody smile.”
Just talking about her daughter brings a smile to Hart's face. It's a smile that’s been hard to come by since Robertson died in a car crash early Friday morning, just hours after spending Thanksgiving together.
“They left and said she was going to her in-laws for Thanksgiving there," Hart said. "I was told they had Thanksgiving and game night there as well.”
Robertson was with her husband and two young kids when, according to Detroit police, they were involved in a crash with another vehicle near Grand River Avenue and Northlawn Street. Police say the other vehicle also had three people inside, but Robertson was the only fatality.
“It's breaking my heart," Hart said.
Hart says Robertson's husband and their two children, ages 1 and 4, were also injured. Their crash came less than 24 hours after two other fatal Thanksgiving crashes.
The first was a wrong-way crash on M-14, which killed two people, and police suspect alcohol was involved. A second wrong-way crash happened later on I-94 in Roseville. That crash led to at least one fatality and other injuries.
“It really hurts deep down. You really feel that kind of pain looking at this kind of thing,” a passerby Mikalya Pochert said at the crash scene Thursday.
According to the National Safety Council, car crashes often spike around holidays. The council projected this Thanksgiving would be the deadliest in more than a decade, estimating 518 fatalities across the U.S.
“I just want my sister to know that I love her so much, and I'm going to miss her so much,” Robertson's sister Jayla Turner said.
Detroit police said the cause of the crash is still under investigation and they had limited information to share.
Robertson's family has launched a GoFundMe page to help with funeral expenses.
