Mum, 39, dies in crash minutes before her daughter, 8, is run down and killed in separate smash on same stretch of motorway

A MUM and her eight-year-old daughter were killed just half an hour apart in separate car accidents on the same road.

Julia Yates Patterson, 39, was killed in a head-on collision while driving her Ford Explorer near her home.

She was pronounced dead at the scene on Alabama Highway 117 in Valley Head on Tuesday at 3pm while two people in the other vehicle were injured.

But about 30 minutes later her little daughter Elizabeth Patterson was crossing the road a few miles down when she was knocked down by a car.

The girl had just returned home from school and had no idea her mother had been killed.

Elizabeth, who was a student at Moon Lake School in Mentone, died instantly.

She had only just celebrated her eighth birthday at the weekend.

Dad Kevin Patterson took to Facebook to mourn the loss of both his little girl and her mother who he is believed to have recently separated from.

Mr Patterson said: “I can’t believe this is real… I really don’t know how to feel.

“And with all our issues, I was still deeply in love with Julie.

“Now all I can think about is what might have been for us and the most intelligent, thoughtful and loving little girl I have ever known.

“Tell me this is just a bad dream, please God!”

Mr Patterson’s dad set up an online fundraising to help cover funeral expense.  

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