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Oct. 01--CALABASAS, Calif. -- A 9-year-old girl burned to death and her mother was severely burned Saturday morning when their car flipped over and caught fire on the 101 Freeway.
According to the California Highway Patrol, the rollover accident occurred about 8:30 a.m in the eastbound lanes of the freeway near Las Virgenes Road.
Gilani Taylor, 27, was driving a 1995 Chrysler sedan, was heading east on the freeway before losing control due to an unknown reason. The car hit the center divider, spun out of control and hit a tanker carrying liquid nitrogen.
That's when the car turned over and slid about 20 feet on its roof before catching fire, officials said.
The blaze started instantly and devoured the car within seconds. Taylor was able to crawl out of the burning car but was unable to save her daughter, 9-year-old Jayla Taylor. Both were wearing seat belts at the time of the crash.
Witness Dale Johnsen described how several good Samaritans helped save Taylor after seeing her car burst into flames.
"She crawled out of the window and starts crawling on her elbows of the car," Johnsen said.
"Then these guys who are out there grab her under the arms, pull her from the second to fourth lane. That's when they try to put out the fire. These guys [are] taking off their shirts to try to get the fire out."
"She's rolling in pain, on fire, and her skin is all falling off.... I was shocked at first, I thought it was a horror movie."
The mother was airlifted to UCLA Medical Center with burns to 90 percent of her body. She was later transferred to USC Medical Center's burn center.
The wreck led to the closure of all eastbound lanes of the freeway for about an hour.
The tanker sustained minimal damage. No other vehicles were involved in the crash.
CHP has collected the car from the scene and plans to conduct a forensic analysis to determine what caused the woman to lose control of the car and what cause the fire, officials said.
