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Husband and Wife Off-Duty Nurses Helped Victims of Fatal Crash Near the Couple’s Family Reunion

NEED TO KNOW

  • Taressa Flores and her husband Thomas Flores helped victims of a “mass casualty” crash in Texas
  • Alexis Osmani Gonzalez-Companioni has been charged in connection to five deaths after allegedly falling asleep behind the wheel of his semi-truck
  • “I don’t think we’ve ever seen anything like this before,” Taressa said

A pair of off-duty nurses are being praised for their heroic acts after they leapt into action to assist with a mass casualty collision near their family reunion.

“I can still smell the smell and I can still see what I saw,” Taressa Flores told CBS News Texas in a joint interview with her husband, Thomas Flores, on Tuesday, July 1.

The incident, which left five people dead, happened Saturday, June 28, when 27-year-old Alexis Osmani Gonzalez-Companioni allegedly fell asleep while driving a semi-truck along Interstate 20.

He was taken into custody at the Kaufman County Jail on Sunday, June 29, where he remains as of Wednesday, July 2, records show.

“I remember hearing a very loud sound and my son had said there was an accident over there,” Thomas said in the interview. 

Taressa added, “It’s like a bomb went off. Looking at it, you couldn’t even tell how many cars were affected because it was that bad.”

Gonzalez-Companioni reportedly told police he fell asleep at the wheel before crashing into the back of a pickup truck carrying five people at around 2:40 p.m. local time, KLTV, CBS News Texas and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram previously reported.

His vehicle then hit two other 18-wheelers as well as three other passenger vehicles, in what the Terrell Volunteer Fire Department called a “mass casualty” event, per CBS.

He was charged with five counts of manslaughter and four counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Four people were pronounced dead at the scene, while a fifth individual was air-lifted to a local hospital in critical condition and later died. 

The other involved vehicles were reportedly a Jeep Compass, a Ford Mustang, and a Honda.

“I end up yelling out for a fire extinguisher to one of the people,” Thomas told CBS News Texas. “I was able to put out the fire real quick and then got the driver out of that 18-wheeler.”

He recalled Gonzalez-Companioni seemingly appearing stunned, but the couple used their years of training and experience to help those in need. 

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“My background is hospice and end of life,” Taressa said. “And then he’s a nurse anesthetist, so he sees the worst of the worst. But I don’t think we’ve ever seen anything like this before.”

They also reflected on being the last to see the victims before they died. 

“Wish we could have done more for her,” Taressa said of one of the women. “I wish she wasn’t stuck the way she was, that she could have gotten out … I just hope that in her last moments, she remembered that somebody was there.”

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