A teenager from Arizona has died while in Austin for a volleyball tournament.
Alexa Cruz was in town with the Venom Volleyball Club. According to the team’s head coach, some players and their parents were involved in the incident, which was attributed to icy conditions on the road. Alexa was the lone fatality while several others were severely injured, according to Fox 7.
The Lone Star National Qualifier, which drew teams from all over the country to the Texas state capital, took on a somber tone. Steven and Mollie Moreno were traveling from near Albuquerque, New Mexico to watch their daughter compete in the DCVA Unite Volleyball Team. The Morenos were one of the unfortunate first to discover the accident, according to Fox 7.
Fox 7 reports that the accident site had “Venom Volleyball” blankets, pillows and backpacks scattered on the road, which allowed reality to sink in for Moreno.
“We knew at that moment that it was girls from the tournament,” Mollie said, according to Fox 7. “I’ve never seen a scene like that before, and it hit home because somebody lost their daughter, and it was just very hard.”
The Morenos offered aid to the accident victims and stopped traffic until first responders arrived, according to Fox 7.
“That area where the accident happened, it was such a sheet of ice that the first responders were actually slipping and sliding in that area as they were trying to work on scene,” Steven said, according to Fox 7.
Venom owner and director Jimmy Gonzalez issued a call for assistance with medical expenses. A GoFundMe page was established and has raised at least $60,000, according to The Arizona Republic.
“You bend over backward to give your kids opportunities to do stuff like this and that’s what they were doing,” Steven said. “They’re going to something that they love and then to have (a) tragedy like this, just really brings back how valuable life is.”
