SAN ANTONIO — By balloons bobbing in the mid-day breeze, members of the IDEA Judson school community came to a Thousand Oaks crash site to share lunch and memories of boys who will be absent but not forgotten.
Family members said ten-year-old Julian and 17-year-old Ivan died Sunday night at the intersection of Alamo Blanco, along with their 22-year-old sister Evelyn Flores.
In a social media post, school administrators said the boys were in fifth and twelfth grades.
The siblings died when their small sedan collided with a Jeep and then a concrete pillar.
Eyewitnesses said one of the children was ejected and the other two had to be cut from the wreckage because of the explosive force of the collision.
In a statement posted online, school administrators told parents it's important that children dealing with the loss of their friends know they are loved and supported as they talk about their feelings.
The post reads: “They were wonderful children, loved by their family and friends, and we will miss them greatly.”
Administrators promised to have a team of counselors at the school through Wednesday to provide emotional support for students.
The post was immediately flooded with messages of prayers, love and support.
Eyewitnesses to the crash echoed that emotion, saying when they learned the three victims were siblings, the loss became harder to bear.
Eric Santos said he was driving a friend home from work when he came upon the crash scene, arriving before first responders.
“I'm very emotional about it because I have a lot of siblings. This is very emotional,” Santos said.
Taylor Tucker lives across the intersection from where the car came to rest.
Tucker said “I'm a parent. If it had been my ten-year-old, I don't know what I would have done.”
Both men said they want surviving family members to know that everyone on scene worked and prayed to save the victims.
“When the children went, they were not alone. We tried our best but it was just too horrific,” Tucker said.
There is a Go Fund Me effort underway to help the family with funeral expenses. By Tuesday afternoon, more than 500 people had made contributions to the fund.