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'Just held her hand': Women comfort pregnant mother after Hardin County crash

A Sunday crash in West Point, Kentucky took the life of two young children and sent their pregnant mother to the hospital.

WEST POINT, Ky. — A late afternoon crash in West Point, Kentucky took the lives of two children and left their pregnant mother in the hospital.

Kanzady Pennoyer saw the blue minivan weave in and out of traffic on US-31 Sunday. Then, she described debris flying from what she thought was a tornado.

She followed the driver in front of her, pulled to the side of the road, and tried to figure out what happened. That's when she saw a gas tank laying in the southbound lanes.

As she walked up to the scene, she described what looked like the empty front half of a car. 

Then she saw a woman inside. 

"We opened the door and just held her hand," she said. "Held her head, talked to her, she's a beautiful little girl."

Pennoyer said she could tell the woman was pregnant, and after some time passed she started asking for her babies.

"When she said, 'my babies, my babies,' I looked up and there was no back half to the car," Pennoyer said. "But I didn't know...you know, I didn't know there were children in the car."

A one-and-two-year-old, both fastened into their car seats, were killed. 

Police arrested Angela Chapman for the crash - they say she was driving a Chrysler Town and Country, under the influence. 

She now faces two murder charges, an assault charge and a DUI. 

While the pregnant mother's identity hasn't been revealed, the Hardin County sheriff told WHAS11 why she was driving Sunday.

"She had been in a southern County, to go to church with her grandparents, and was on her way back home and this happened," Sheriff John Ward said.

The same grandparents were preparing to spend what would have been their grandchildren's first holiday season together. But with two of their loved ones now gone, are now waiting for more news on their daughter and future grandchild.

"Not only do you have her and her babies," Pennoyer said. "What about her mom, her grandmother, her siblings, her cousins, her coworkers, father of the babies?" 

So many lives are now altered by a single crash - one police officer say showed "extreme indifference to human life."

► Contact reporter Tom Lally at TLally@whas11.com or on Facebook or Twitter.

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