Members of Salt Lake City's LDS Crystal Heights 2nd Ward will be fasting and praying today for a family killed in a tragic accident believed to have been caused by a teenager driving drunk.
Christopher Williams, 42, remains hospitalized along with his 6-year-old son, Sam. Salt Lake City police said both were listed in serious condition.
The Friday night crash killed Williams' wife, 41-year-old Michelle, who was about six months pregnant; 11-year-old son Ben; and 9-year-old daughter Anna. The Williams' 14-year-old son, Michael, was not with the family at the time of the crash.
Christopher Williams was alert and speaking with friends and family from his hospital bed, LDS Stake President James Wood said Saturday.
"Physically, he is doing OK. He's got some broken ribs," President Wood said. "Emotionally, it's a tough time, but his faith is very strong. It's getting him through."
Williams is asking people to pray for the person who hit his car, killing half of his family, President Wood said.
Authorities said the family was driving under the I-80 overpass at 2000 East just before 10 p.m. when a Jeep Cherokee hit their Volkswagen Jetta.
"The victim tried to swerve out of the way, and it was T-boned," Salt Lake City Police Lt. Mike Tuttle said Saturday.
Police said the 17-year-old driver of the Jeep bolted and was captured several blocks away. Meanwhile, the Sugar House neighborhood in which Christopher Williams is an LDS bishop is trying to cope with the horrible tragedy.
"They were beautiful people trying to follow the Savior," said family friend Justin Bell.
Throughout the day, Bell's phone was constantly ringing with ward members offering condolences and asking what they could do. Tears streamed down his face, staining his shirt as he offered them words of counsel.
"I know we can pray for the bishop, Michael and Sam," he told one caller.
At the scene of the crash near 2000 East and Stratford Avenue, people stopped to pay their respects. Amid the shattered glass, orange accident-scene paint and cat litter sopping up oil, flowers had been placed on the ground. A card attached to one read "You will be missed."
"I don't know how you can explain it, other than you can say bad things happen to good people sometimes," President Wood said.
The crash scene
Michael Lee said he came upon the crash moments after it happened. In an interview with the Deseret Morning News on Saturday, he described seeing Christopher Williams in the driver's seat, moaning in pain.
"It was so smashed up ...," he said, the injured and dead still inside the vehicle.
Witnesses said that shortly after flipping his SUV, a teen driver climbed out of the car and, apparently in a daze, took off running. A 17-year-old was found by police officers near 2700 South and 1700 East. Police said they found alcohol in the Jeep.
"He was definitely drunk," said a man who lived in the neighborhood. He identified himself as "Dario."
"He was just laying (there). The cop had his knee in his back for a while. Then the ambulance came," Dario said.
At the scene of the crash, people were trying to help the Williams family. Lee said he saw a woman — who said she was a nurse — check pulses. He looked inside the smashed-up Jetta and saw a child on the floor.
"He was laying face down on the floorboards and just moving a little bit and I thought, 'At least he's moving,"' he recalled.
Lee expressed frustration with how long it took the police and paramedics to arrive at the crash. Minutes felt like hours before a fire engine finally arrived on scene.
"It was an excruciating wait," he said.
Fasting and praying
Police said they booked the 17-year-old into juvenile detention for investigation of driving under the influence. On Saturday, detectives were said to be conducting further investigations into the triple-fatal crash.
"It's just a major tragedy," Tuttle said. "It's a family that's torn apart."
On Saturday night, at least 200 members of Williams' ward gathered at the chapel to pray — just a few hundred yards from the scene of the crash.
Late Saturday while in the hospital, Williams told Michael Hennessy, "'I feel peace.'" Hennessy told those gathered to pray that Bishop Williams was up and walking around about an hour before the chapel meeting. Hennessy added that Sam Williams' vital signs looked good Saturday but that the next two to three days will be critical for the boy's recovery because of swelling in his brain.
A fund is being set up to help the Williams family at Zions Bank, President Wood said.
The crash is eerily reminiscent of two other recent deadly DUI accidents.
In November 2006, a man was allegedly driving drunk in a white pickup going the wrong way on I-80 near Knolls, Tooele County, when he struck a Pontiac Bonneville carrying four people. Three people in the Pontiac were killed, including the driver, Vakataha Mila, 43, of West Valley City and back-seat passengers Sosaio Fehoko, 69, and Valentine Kioa, 50, both of Salt Lake City. Jeffrey M. Harrison, 25, has been charged with three counts of automobile homicide.
Then on Christmas Eve, police said a drunken driver ran a red light in Murray, slamming into a car and killing members of a Cedar Hills, Utah County, family.
Cheryl Ceran, 47; her 15-year-old son, Ian; and 7-year-old daughter Julianna, were killed in the crash. Husband and father Gary Ceran, and two other children, 19-year-old Clarissa and 12-year Caleb, were hospitalized but survived. Carlos Rodolfo Prieto, 24, is facing three counts of automobile homicide.
"It was the Cerans in December and the Williams in February and I just wonder who's next," Bell said. "We need to do something. ... It's just too devastating, too painful, too too many."
Despite the tragedy that has befallen his family, President Wood said Williams expressed concern about the driver who hit them.
"He'd just been brought into the hospital," President Wood recalled. "He was as concerned about the driver of the other car as he was his own family."
E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com