A middle school in Delaware is mourning the loss of their principal and her 10-year-old daughter who died in a car crash over the weekend, USA TODAY reported.
Tricia R. Martin, 42, and her daughter, Taryn, died late Friday or early Saturday after the wreck occurred around 10:40 p.m., just miles from their home.
Martin was driving her Acura SUV westbound and crossed into the eastbound lanes, where she veered off a rural road, hit a telephone box and fence, and then crashed into a ditch, according to Master Cpl. Gary Fournier of Delaware State Police. The SUV then hit an embankment, causing it to flip on its side and back onto the road facing west in the eastbound lane.
Though Martin was still inside the vehicle, her daughter got out of the car and asked for help from a car that stopped, Fournier said. However, another SUV traveling eastbound hit the Acura.
The second SUV hit Martin's car, throwing it back into the embankment and causing her to be ejected from the vehicle. One of the vehicles hit Taryn, who ended up in the south side of the road.
The driver of the second SUV, Richard B. Triola, 49, was taken to a hospital for minor injuries and released.
Laura Becton, a seventh-grader at Milford Central Academy -- where Martin started as a math teacher and later became principal -- said she cried immediately after hearing of her death.
"There's going to be a lot of crying and not a lot of working," Becton said. "This is my first year here and this is my first year with her. I thought I would have more time with her."
The Delaware school has over 1,000 students in the sixth, seventh, and eigth grades.
"There are still a lot of heavy hearts in there," said Milford School Board President Marvin Schelhouse, who gathered school staff on Sunday to prepare for the first day of school without Martin. "It's going to be very tough between now and the day of the funeral."
Counselors are available at Milford Central and Milford High School.
"Tricia was just an outstanding individual," Schelhouse added. "She was dedicated to this district and the children. (It's) hard to find people like Tricia Martin. They don't come along all the time."
