Police responded to a collision that left six dead Sunday after an automated iPhone recording tipped off the Lincoln, Nebraska, police.
The friend group of six was speeding eastbound on Randolph Street from 56th towards Robert Road at around 2:16 a.m, 10/11 NOW reported. The black Honda Accord veered off the street, hitting the curb and a mailbox, and eventually colliding with a tree. An iPhone recording notified police that the phone’s owner had been in an accident.
The driver, 26-year-old Lincoln resident Jonathan Kurth, died along with four passengers before authorities arrived, Omaha World-Harold reported. Police identified the other passengers as Octavias Farr, 21, Benjamin Lenagh, 23, Jonathan Koch, 22, and Nicholas Bisesi, 22. All victims were from Lincoln except for Lenagh, who came from Omaha, Nebraska, according to the outlet.
First responders took 24-year-old Lincoln resident Cassie Brenner to the hospital in critical condition, the outlet noted. She died Sunday morning.
The 911 call reporting the fatal Lincoln crash was made automatically by an iPhone emergency response. The phone indicated to police that the owner was in a car crash and wasn’t responding. https://t.co/5z77hiDFFU
— 6 News WOWT (@WOWT6News) October 2, 2022
“I’ve been with this department for 25 years and can’t remember anything as horrible,” Assistant Lincoln Police Chief Michon Morrow stated Sunday, according to the World-Harold. (RELATED: Woman Severely Injured After At Least One Cop Leaves Her On Railroad Tracks, Officials Say)
Neighbors did what they could, before authorities arrived, according to 10/11 NOW. “We were dousing it,” Brad Bartak, a neighbor, told the outlet. “The gentleman up the street, Seth, took over for that. I was able to knock a window out in the back.”
“He would not want us to be heartbroken… he would want us to cheer ourselves up and move forward,” Koch’s sister, Kayla Kelley, stated. “I think he would want everyone to remember how much he cared about them, because he was such a caring guy,” Kaleigh Keown, Koch’s other sister, told the outlet.