Woman killed at McDonald's drive-thru

23-year-old mother, her husband and their sons, Eric, 5, and Ivan, 1, were just walking up to the McDonald's when tragedy struck.

A vehicle leaving the drive-thru lane struck Chavez, who was holding Ivan, and pinned her against a raised piece of landscaping. She died at the scene; the baby was not hurt.

"Why, why did this happen to me?" Chavez's husband, Mario Maya, asked repeatedly as he waited inside the McDonald's with his children while authorities investigated the site.

Police said it appears the driver, a man whose name was not released, was on his cell phone and might have accelerated too quickly -- perhaps because he was upset over his order -- as he drove out. He was not arrested.

The restaurant closed but reopened a couple of hours later. But dislodged and smashed pieces of wooden railroad ties holding up a bed of rocks and small shrubs -- the landscaping Chavez had been pinned against -- were reminders of what had happened.

According to police, the driver, alone in a Lincoln Navigator, had been talking on a cell phone as he was about to leave the McDonald's drive-thru. McDonald's employees said later on Saturday that the driver was not arguing with them.

As he pulled forward, rather than steering right slightly to turn out of the way of the landscaping, he apparently drove straight ahead, Smyser said. It was unclear how fast the Navigator was moving when it struck Chavez, but the extent of damage to the landscaping suggested that he accelerated quickly, Smyser said.

Maya said: "The car took off with all its might and ran over my wife." He said that his wife was holding Ivan, but that he tumbled out of her arms unhurt.

The driver stayed at the scene after the collision and was interviewed by investigators. Police were reviewing the case to see whether charges should be brought. Article here.