Driver facing charges, authorities ID mother and 11-year-old daughter killed in Johnston County crash

Authorities said Jennifer Camillo-Melendez, 37, and her daughter Mikaela Camillo died in the crash.

Kiara Shalimar Guadalupe-Mercado, the driver of a Jeep Cherokee they were in, is facing charges.

Guadalupe-Mercado, 30, of Fayetteville, is charged with two counts of death by motor vehicle, two counts of failure to fasten seatbelts of passengers younger than 16 and one count of failure to stop at a stop sign.

According to authorities, Camillo-Melendez, Camillo and Camillo's older sister were in the back seat of the Jeep. None of them were wearing seatbelts, authorities said. The two girls were ejected from the Jeep.

Camillo's older sister is stable at the hospital, authorities said. There is also another person who is in critical at the hospital, according to authorities. There were five people in the Jeep, authorities said.

Authorities said, on Friday, Guadalupe-Mercado drove through a stop sign on Drag Strip Road on North Carolina Highway 242. A dump truck T-boned the Jeep outside of Benson, authorities said.

EMS checked the driver of the truck, who remained at the scene and was uninjured.

Neighbors who have lived near the intersection for decades say they have witnessed "crash after crash" pile up at the same intersection.

"Very frightful sounding," said Joy Allen, a local resident.

Allen, who lives a few yards from the scene, said she heard the crash before she saw it.

"It was horrible," Allen said.

Allen says she ran from her house to the accident and tried to help out. When she approached, the scene was unbearable.

The weather was not a factor in the crash, authorities said.

The driver of the truck told WRAL News that the driver never slowed down before the stop sign and he was unable to avoid her.

He also says he lives only three miles from the crash scene and was on his way home.

North Carolina Highway 242 was shut down while crews cleaned up the wreckage.

Many residents like Allen said something has to change, and they have contacted city leaders about making changes to the area.

"Caution lights, stop signs, I just do not know, but it needs something," Allen said. "If we are talking about babies and kids in a crash, that is horrible."