Trussville, AL - A two car accident leaves one woman dead, two teenagers injured and a family in mourning. It happened around 1p.m. Friday on Watson Road in Grayson Valley, near Trussville.

A broken wooden post, a crushed mailbox, and dozens of scattered car fragments tell a tragic story of how 67 year-old Renate Easley was killed while performing a simple task. She was standing on the edge of her yard, getting her mail out of the mailbox.

"It was too unreal that you could be checking your mail and that this could happen," says Jennifer Kelly, Easley's daughter.

Jefferson County Sheriff's Department says a 16 year-old, driving a Nissan Maxima, ran a stop sign and crashed into two other teenagers in a Chevy Blazer. Investigators say the Blazer lost control, hit Easley and then rolled over. They say the person in the Maxima was not injured. The two people in the Blazer were taken to UAB with minor injuries. But Easley wasn't so lucky.

"The impact was horrible. The impact was bad," says Jennifer Kelly.

Family members say the Blazer knocked Easley about 20 yards, to the far end of her driveway.

"I was shocked and obviously I'll be hurting for a long time," says David Kelly, Easley's son.

Easley's two children describe her as a spitfire with a thick accent. An outgoing, funny, independent, single mom who came to the US from Germany in 1970.

"As a mother she was a lion. She took the place of our dad too so she was everything to us," says Jennifer Kelly.

"Very friendly person who would take the shirt off her back to someone just to help out," says David Kelly.

"We're going to miss my mom. All of us who knew Renate remember her along with us," says Jennifer Kelly.

To Easley's family, this accident involved a crime. But we do not yet know if the driver who ran the stop sign is being charged with anything. We are also still waiting to find out if the person driving the Blazer was speeding.

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