Survivors speak about living through fatal multi-vehicle crash

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (WSVN) -- Survivors are thanking their lucky stars the night after living through a horrifying hit and run on a Interstate 95.

Police report that 23-year-old Jacob Payne slammed into a car carrying a mother and son on I-95 and just kept going. Seconds later, that same driver caused a fiery wreck that would leave a woman dead.

Payne now lies at Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood where he and three others are receiving treatment.

The crash shutdown I-95 southbound near Hollywood Boulevard for nearly five hours during the height of rush hour. Investigators report that Payne, a Hallandale Beach resident, crashed his sport utility vehicle into the rear of a Ford Expedition causing both SUVs to burst into flames, killing the innocent driver.

Tamia Lucas and her son Erick Tyson survived the encounter with Payne's Cadillac Escalade. "It was like chaos," she said. "You have people jumping across from the other side, on the northbound lanes, looking for extinguishers, trying to put out the fire, just trying to get all the people out of all the other cars."

The crash trapped the female driver of the Expedition, who police have yet to identify due to the fire that consumed her body. Investigators plan to use dental records to verify her identity. Rescuers had to airlift her passenger to the hospital with serious injuries. Meanwhile, Payne and both passengers in his vehicle were transported by ambulance to the same hospital.

"I'm the only one that was able to walk away," said Lucas. "Me and him," she said turning to her son, who had a bandaged leg.

Payne's vehicle slammed into Lucas' silver Ford Taurus just before he struck the Expedition. "It was just like a whole lot of smoke and a whole lot of damage to both cars," said Lucas' 13-year-old son Erick. "I was like really scared, and I was lucky that our car didn't get that damaged."

According to Hollywood Police, Payne had been involved in another hit and run crash five months earlier. That time he supposedly caused a four-car pile-up. He was also driving with a suspended license.

(Copyright 2009 by Sunbeam Television Corp. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)