CASPER — A Casper family is still trying to come to terms with their new reality after the car carrying 18-year-old twin sisters collided with an elk at 101 miles per hour.
Hannah Brooks survived Monday’s crash on Wyoming Highway 487, but her twin sister Sammantha did not.
Sarah Hardy, Sammantha’s mother, stated that her loss has left a void in the hearts of those who knew her.
Sammantha, a server at Texas Roadhouse, was thrown from the vehicle in which she was riding as a passenger while a friend drove.
Hardy described her as a “ray of light for a lot of people.”
“She was always helpful, always willing to lend a piece of advice,” Hardy told Cowboy State Daily. “Through whatever struggles she was going through in young adult and teenage life, she always made time to talk to friends and sit with them and help them.”
Hardy stated that Sammantha and Hannah were more than best friends, and Hannah is “really lost without her sister and figuring out how to grieve.”
The Wyoming Department of Transportation’s fatal crash map online indicates that speed and driver fatigue may have contributed to the accident. It also states that Brooks was not wearing her seat belt. The car carried four people, three of whom survived.
Hardy stated that her understanding is that only the backseat passenger next to Hannah had her seatbelt fastened.
In her conversations with police, she stated that she understands the vehicle was traveling north on Wyoming 487 and that the driver attempted to avoid striking an elk.
However, the car rolled over after colliding with an elk. Hardy stated that Sammantha was ejected through the passenger side door as the vehicle flipped.
Passenger Grabs Sister
Hannah Brooks was saved from being ejected because a friend beside her grabbed onto her and held on as the vehicle rolled, Hardy said.
Hardy also stated that she was told the driver was traveling at an extremely high speed.
“You can’t help that there were elk on the road, but I can imagine that going at that rate of speed, anything could have happened to cause them to lose control of the vehicle,” according to her. “The report said specifically that they were going at 101 mph.”
A call to the Wyoming Highway Patrol about the crash had not been returned by the time this story was published.
Hardy stated that her daughter enjoyed taking car trips with her twin and friends and listening to music. She also enjoyed spending time outdoors.
Sammantha was working on her GED and considered becoming a certified nurse assistant and working in the medical field.
Hardy explained that Sammantha had recently moved out of the house and was figuring out how to live as an adult.
Another Blow
Samantha’s loss comes as Hardy, who also is a server at Texas Roadhouse, was trying to keep her residence and world afloat after Hardy’s boyfriend was on his way to work on a bike and got hit by a truck last month.
He spent a week in the hospital and now has a crushed pelvis and a broken leg.
“It put everything on me financially for ourselves,” Hardy told me. “And for this to come up now, it has me not working because I am trying to handle all the funeral needs and the final stuff.”
Alicen Outlaw, a Texas Roadhouse coworker, has stepped in and started a GoFundMe campaign for Hardy and Hannah Brooks, who are looking for a way to honor Sammantha with a funeral service.
Outlaw stated that she also thought of Sammantha as a daughter.
“She was probably the kindest and purest soul I have ever known in my entire life,” Outlaw told the audience.
Hardy expressed gratitude for Outlaw’s kindness, but she has yet to finalize funeral plans. She is grateful that the crash did not result in the loss of both daughters.
She stated that Hannah is struggling because she and Sammantha “were more than best friends.”
“She feels like she really lost her person, her best friend who has helped her through everything,” Hardy told me. “We haven’t had many deaths in our family, especially among people close to my daughters.
“The incident was horrific and life-changing.”
