A 17-year-old South Carolina mother died after a large bird smashed into the windshield of a pickup truck she was riding in, causing the driver to lose control and careen into a tree.

High school junior Abbigail “Grace” Callaham was declared dead at the scene in Anderson County, S.C. Thomas Kennedy, her boyfriend and the father of the couple’s 4-month-old child, was driving and listed in critical condition Wednesday.

The couple were en route about 11 a.m. Tuesday to pick up their daughter from day care from Belton-Honea Path High School when suddenly a “a bird flew out of a tree,” a witness told police.

“Preliminary investigation shows that the victim was a passenger in a Chevrolet S10 traveling on Clamp Drive when a large bird, possibly a turkey, flew out of the woods and hit the windshield of the truck,” the coroner’s office wrote in a news release obtained by the News & Observer. “The driver then lost control of the vehicle, ran off the right side of the roadway where he overcorrected, crossed the center line and hit a tree on the left side of the roadway.”

Callaham was not wearing a seatbelt and died of “multiple traumatic injuries,” the coroner’s office said.

The school held a vigil for the two students Wednesday and sent condolences, promising to have extra counselors on hand “to provide grief support to students and staff,” the district said in a statement. “Please keep Grace’s family in your thoughts and prayers as they navigate through this difficult time.”

The community was reeling at the loss. A witness who first reported the crash was a fellow student who was driving behind the couple, coroner Greg Shore told WYFF-TV.

“Her dad was grief stricken,” Greg Shore, the county coroner, told WSPA-TV. “Abbigail’s 12-year-old sister was also on the scene. It just breaks our heart to see them suffering like that. It’s just a tragedy.”

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