The families of those who lost two teens in a fiery Commerce crash were praying for a driver named Tony who was still in a coma. Kate Larsen reports for the NBC4 News at 11 on Sunday, Feb. 28, 2016.
After a fiery chain-reaction crash left three people dead, and others injured, the 21-year-old driver of a car struck by a UPS truck was in a coma in the hospital Sunday, his family said.
"I raised Anthony since he was 3 months old," Sylvia Guzman, Tony's aunt, said. "We're close, very close."
Guzman said she is praying for her nephew, Anthony Miramontes -- friends call him Tony -- who has been in a coma since Saturday morning.
Doctors took him off medication Sunday morning hoping it would rouse him from his coma, his family said.
"I woke up about 7 in the morning and he wasn't in his bed, so I told my sister, 'Anthony is not here,'" Guzman said. "So that's when we started calling and texting."
Soon after, Guzman and Tony's mother found out Tony and his three friends, who were on their way home from Disneyland, were involved in a crash on the 5 Freeway in Commerce.
The California Highway Patrol said the top of Anthony's Nissan was sheared off by a UPS truck that was sent airborne by two street racers weaving through traffic.
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"I really don't have anything to say to them, but they made a mistake and this is what happens when you don't think about the consequences of racing," Guzman said. "I don't hate them. This one just went horribly wrong."
Anthony's friends, Michelle Littlefield, 19, and Brian Lewandowski, 18, were killed in the wreck. They were sitting in the back seat.
Earlier Sunday, Michelle's father, William, said instead of worrying about the street racers who investigators say caused the wreck that killed his only child, he was praying for his daughter's friend Tony to recover.
Anthony was being cared for at St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood.
"I have no regrets about my daughter and my relationship with her. She blessed me to be a good dad and I love Tony and I want everyone to pray for him and gets out of this," Littlefield said.
Scott Treadway was behind the wheel of the UPS truck, and died in the crash.
One of the alleged street racers, identified as Dealio Lockhart, 35, of Whittier, was taken into custody and is facing vehicular manslaughter charges. A second driver fled the scene and is at large, according to the CHP.
