Woman dies after stopping to help flipped driver on I-10

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) – A New Orleans woman died after she stopped to pull a trapped driver from a flipped car on Interstate 10 and was struck by another vehicle, her mother and a witness to the crash told Fox 8 Friday.

Ka’Sheena Daniels, 31, died Sept. 25 on I-10 West near Elysian Fields Avenue after helping free a driver she recognized as her neighbor, said Franchon Williams, a friend who was with her at the time.

New Orleans police said the crash began when a car traveling at high speed made a sudden lane change and flipped over, prompting several drivers to stop and help the trapped driver.

Police said another vehicle then struck one of the stopped cars, pushing it into the crowd of people who had gathered to help. Authorities said multiple people were hurt, but Daniels was the only person who died.

Daniels was born and raised in New Orleans, had just celebrated a birthday and was raising her adopted son, Noah, while working in accounting, according to her mother, O’Sheenana Daniels.

“She just was that girl,” O’Sheenana Daniels said in an interview Friday. “If you needed help…and she could do it, it was done.”

Daniels left New Orleans East last Friday night to go out with close friends. The group saw a flipped car on the interstate, and Williams said Daniels recognized the driver as her neighbor.

“We see the lady. We try to help her out. My friend KK jumped out,” Williams said, referring to Ka-Sheena Daniels.

Williams said her friend pulled the woman out of the car and that only a few moments passed before Daniels was struck, causing her to fall off the side of I-10.

“(We’re) looking for my friend. (We’re) looking up under the cars, everywhere, and then they told me, like, ‘Well, y’all, somebody went over,’” Williams said. “They put their flashlight down there. It’s my friend. She’s just down there.”

O’Sheenana Daniels said she helped authorities locate her daughter after the crash.

“I started screaming my (baby’s) name, and she said, ‘Ma,” O’Sheenana Daniels said. “When they heard her say that, they ran where…she was calling from.”

O’Sheenana Daniels said she can’t believe her daughter’s death and struggles with the circumstances surrounding it.

“It’s sad to say, but I wish she just never would have helped (anybody),” O’Sheenana Daniels said. “I just wish she would have just kept on going about her business.”

Williams said she and Daniels had planned to start paramedic school next week. Williams said she will help both of them reach that goal.

New Orleans police said they continue to investigate the crash. Daniels’ family has set up a GoFundMe to pay for her funeral.