5-year-old girl remains in critical condition after violent crash with big rig in Adelanto

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    SAN BERNARDINO, California (KCAL/KCBS) — A San Bernardino County family is hoping to hold a big rig driver accountable for a violent crash that left their five-year-old daughter hospitalized in critical condition.

The crash happened on Thursday, June 20 at around 12:30 a.m. on U.S. Highway 395 near Calleja Road in Adelanto, according to San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department investigators.

Marcus Coleman, the girl’s father, said that they were part of the six-car pileup crash, which included a big rig that slammed into them, severely injuring his daughter Dalilah.

“She was pinned in the back rear passenger,” Coleman said. “Squished between the back passenger and the front passenger seat, and she was hit with enough force that it broke the seat.”

Now, she’s being cared for at Loma Linda University Medical Center, where she continues to recover from a broken femur, fractured skull and so much pressure building up on her bruised brain that doctors had to remove part of her skull to help with swelling.

“The condition that my daughter’s in right now, the suffering that she’s doing, I definitely want him held accountable,” Coleman said.

He’s demanding answers from investigators after what he hear from first responders and witnesses after the crash.

“The driver allegedly fell asleep,” he said.

SBSD investigators say that they’re unable to release the specifics of the case as it continues, but for Coleman, a truck driver himself, the entire ordeal is beyond upsetting.

“I’ve been driving cross country since 2006 and I’ve never sat there and jeopardized someone’s life because I was tired or wanted to go deliver a load or anything like that,” he said.

Coleman says that Dalilah was getting ready to start kindergarten, but now she’ll probably need to recover for at least a year’s time.

While she recovers, he’s making it his mission to make sure that what happened to his family doesn’t get swept under the rug.

“Like I said, I don’t even know if the guys been arrested or not,” he said. “I’ve got my five-year-old daughter in here, she hasn’t even come to.”

KCAL News attempted to reach out to the company that Coleman believes the truck driver works for, but officials are thus far unavailable for comment.

Anyone with more information on the crash is urged to contact detectives at (760) 552-6800.

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