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Teen dies in head-on crash with SUV
At least one other person was injured in the morning collision on Heckscher Drive.
By BRIDGET MURPHY, The Times-Union
Lawrence Brown's mom, Tammy, wrapped an arm around neighbor Isis Belton's neck Monday evening to brace herself against sobs that made her body shake.
"Oh God," the Jacksonville mother said to Belton, who returned her hug while whispering words of comfort to the friend whose 17-year-old son died in a fiery wreck Monday.
The Heckscher Drive crash that killed Lawrence Brown also injured six members of another family, including three young children.
Authorities said that about 10 a.m. the teenager's Dodge Neon crossed the two-lane road near the Nassau County border and hit the family's Toyota Sequoia head-on, also leaving at least one of those victims with life-threatening injuries.
Brown had been following his father, Darian Brown, to work, where the two would have teamed up for a carpet installation job. Instead, the father had to pull the family's carpet business van to the roadside and try to yank his son from the Neon that exploded into flames.
The 17-year-old died at the scene. Florida Highway Patrol investigators said they don't know what caused him to swerve out of his lane on the slight curve in the roadway.
A witness who was behind the northbound vehicles of the father and son near the Nassau Sound Bridge stopped and called 911 to report the crash. Then the woman, whom the FHP identified as Layla Shehata, helped pull the victims from the SUV as flames spread from the Neon.
"Had it not been for her, others may have been killed," Lt. Bill Leeper said of Shehata, who wouldn't comment later Monday.
Authorities said five of the victims were traveling with Patricia Tenison, 56, of Amelia Island, who also suffered injuries as a passenger in the SUV. Clay Greene, 33, of Tulsa, Okla., was the driver.
The Highway Patrol identified the others injured as Greene's wife, Amy Greene, 31, and the couple's children: 4-year-old John, 2-year-old Josie and 10-month-old Cameron. Investigators said they think Tenison is the children's grandmother. The family couldn't be reached later Monday.
Authorities said at the crash scene that rescuers took several of the victims to Shands Jacksonville hospital, including two whom they airlifted. The FHP said in a report later Monday that Tenison's injury was life-threatening and the rest of the victims from the SUV had minor injuries.
A Shands spokeswoman didn't return messages requesting an update on the patients' conditions.
Loved ones of Lawrence Brown gathered at his family's Poppy Drive home to comfort each other on Monday evening.
"He was such a good kid," Tammy Brown said while choking back tears in an earlier phone interview.
bridget.murphy@jacksonville.co m, (904) 359-4161
