Sometimes technology does not help during a disaster. If she had the old roll manual window up and down. Would she be alive today?.
FORT WORTH -- "Break the glass! Break the glass! Break the glass! Break the glass!" Christina Williams cried as two men pounded on the windows of her sinking car.
Someone handed John Piszor a tool -- he thinks it was a car jack -- but it was too heavy for him to use in the water.
"It was really dark, the water was really cold, and there wasn't much more we could do," Piszor said Friday. "We just couldn't break the window."
Four Forest Hill police officers also tried.
But Williams, 36, and her 22-month-old daughter, Tisiphone Rose Williams, were submerged inside the car for several minutes Thursday evening before Fort Worth firefighter/divers finally got them out.
Williams was pronounced dead at 7:50 p.m. and Tisiphone at 8:02 p.m., the Tarrant County medical examiner's office reported. The cause of their deaths had not been determined late Friday.
The wreck occurred about 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Williams had just picked up Tisiphone and was headed home to Mansfield. Reports indicate that she was talking on her cellphone and ran a stop sign as she turned from Collett Little Road onto the East Loop 820 service road in southeast Fort Worth.
Her Kia clipped a passing car and then crashed through an iron fence and into a large pond on the property of Amelia Parc, a senior apartment complex.
Williams dialed 911 and pleaded for help, growing increasingly desperate as the car sank.
A recording of the call was released by Forest Hill police, whose dispatcher got the call.
"Ma'am, my doors won't open and I've got a baby, and we're going under water," Williams said. "Hurry, get the police here.
"What do I do? We're going under water."
She could be heard calling to the men outside to "break the glass!"
Those left behind
On Friday, David Johnson, who said he was Williams' "common-law husband," visited the crash scene with his mother, Ila Johnson.
David Johnson described Williams, who worked for Delta Air Lines' call center at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport, as "beautiful inside and out."
Ila Johnson said her son and Williams had lived with her in Redwood Estates, a mobile home park not far from the crash site in southeast Fort Worth, before moving a year ago to a duplex closer to where David Johnson works in Mansfield.
Ila Johnson said that her son usually dropped off Tisiphone before going to work and that Williams picked up the girl after her workday was done.
"They had just left my house when the accident happened," she said.
Ila Johnson said Tisiphone loved to help her walk her Pomeranian, Sassie.
"She would hold on to the leash and walk Sassie down the road and back with me while she smiled and laughed," Ila Johnson said. "She wasn't saying much yet, but sure knew the words hi and bye."
The little girl loved to be read to and often carried around a Minnie Mouse doll, Ila Johnson said.
"She was a very loving child and loved by all who had the joy of meeting her," Ila Johnson said.
Williams' parents, Dave and Reggie VanBerg of Mineral Wells, said she grew up in Fort Worth with two sisters and a brother. Dave VanBerg said she "had a heart as big as Texas."
Her mother recalled how Williams shared her lunches at school with classmates.
"She took the time to help other people, a lot of times before herself," Reggie VanBerg said. "And she just could not wait to get home each night with her daughter."
On her Facebook page, Williams said she graduated from Arlington Heights High School in 1997. She describes her daughter as "such a little ham." Amid several photos of Tisiphone, which begin shortly after her birth, is a picture of a locket with the words: "My little girl yesterday, my friend today, my daughter forever."
David Johnson said Tisiphone's name is from a figure in Greek mythology, which he enjoys studying.
"I thought it was pretty, different and unique," he said, tears welling, "and Christina liked it too."
'I heard her scream'
The pond is at Amelia Parc Senior Apartments, an upscale complex with a landmark clock tower near the mixmaster of East and Southeast Loop 820, Interstate 20 and Mansfield Highway at the border of Fort Worth, Forest Hill and Kennedale.
David Johnson said Williams had broken her left foot Monday and was in a cast.
He was still at work as she headed home with Tisiphone, and they were talking on the phone.
"We were just talking about everyday common stuff," he said. "I heard her scream and she said there was an accident. She said, 'I'm in water.' I said, 'Hang up with me and call 911.'"
Sgt. Cynthia Blake, supervisor of the Fort Worth police traffic investigation unit, said witnesses told investigators that "she just plowed through the stop sign."
The Kia clipped the front right quarter panel of an Acura that was southbound on the service road.
The driver of the Acura also called 911.
"I don't know what happened. I hit my horn," the driver told the dispatcher.
"I was on the access road and she just pulled out in front of me and I did everything I could not to hit her."
Ila Johnson wondered why Williams did not roll down a window to escape. The windows weren't electric.
"It's an educated guess," David Johnson said, "but what killed them both was a five-letter word -- panic."
The rescue attempt
Piszor, 20, of Grapevine, said he and his friend Nathan Brown, 21, of McKinney were southbound on the access road when the crash happened in front of them.
He said Williams' car started to spin and appeared to accelerate as it broke through the fence and entered the water.
The car ended up "a pretty good ways out there" in the pond, Piszor said.
Piszor said Brown immediately jumped in while Piszor called 911. He then joined Brown in the pond and tried to break the windows.
It wasn't working, so Piszor swam back to shore, got the heavy tool and tried, unsuccessfully, to swim back to the car with it.
"By that time, the front of the car was already pretty much submerged," he said. "My friend said the woman inside was on the phone talking to 911."
Piszor said Brown suffered a few cuts during the attempted rescue. Piszor said he wasn't sure his friend wanted to talk about the incident.
"He's pretty torn up about the whole thing," he said.
Correspondent Bob Booth and staff writer Bill Miller contributed to this report.
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FORT WORTH -- "Break the glass! Break the glass! Break the glass! Break the glass!" Christina Williams cried as two men pounded on the windows of her sinking car.
Someone handed John Piszor a tool -- he thinks it was a car jack -- but it was too heavy for him to use in the water.
"It was really dark, the water was really cold, and there wasn't much more we could do," Piszor said Friday. "We just couldn't break the window."
Four Forest Hill police officers also tried.
But Williams, 36, and her 22-month-old daughter, Tisiphone Rose Williams, were submerged inside the car for several minutes Thursday evening before Fort Worth firefighter/divers finally got them out.
Williams was pronounced dead at 7:50 p.m. and Tisiphone at 8:02 p.m., the Tarrant County medical examiner's office reported. The cause of their deaths had not been determined late Friday.
The wreck occurred about 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Williams had just picked up Tisiphone and was headed home to Mansfield. Reports indicate that she was talking on her cellphone and ran a stop sign as she turned from Collett Little Road onto the East Loop 820 service road in southeast Fort Worth.
Her Kia clipped a passing car and then crashed through an iron fence and into a large pond on the property of Amelia Parc, a senior apartment complex.
Williams dialed 911 and pleaded for help, growing increasingly desperate as the car sank.
A recording of the call was released by Forest Hill police, whose dispatcher got the call.
"Ma'am, my doors won't open and I've got a baby, and we're going under water," Williams said. "Hurry, get the police here.
"What do I do? We're going under water."
She could be heard calling to the men outside to "break the glass!"
Those left behind
On Friday, David Johnson, who said he was Williams' "common-law husband," visited the crash scene with his mother, Ila Johnson.
David Johnson described Williams, who worked for Delta Air Lines' call center at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport, as "beautiful inside and out."
Ila Johnson said her son and Williams had lived with her in Redwood Estates, a mobile home park not far from the crash site in southeast Fort Worth, before moving a year ago to a duplex closer to where David Johnson works in Mansfield.
Ila Johnson said that her son usually dropped off Tisiphone before going to work and that Williams picked up the girl after her workday was done.
"They had just left my house when the accident happened," she said.
Ila Johnson said Tisiphone loved to help her walk her Pomeranian, Sassie.
"She would hold on to the leash and walk Sassie down the road and back with me while she smiled and laughed," Ila Johnson said. "She wasn't saying much yet, but sure knew the words hi and bye."
The little girl loved to be read to and often carried around a Minnie Mouse doll, Ila Johnson said.
"She was a very loving child and loved by all who had the joy of meeting her," Ila Johnson said.
Williams' parents, Dave and Reggie VanBerg of Mineral Wells, said she grew up in Fort Worth with two sisters and a brother. Dave VanBerg said she "had a heart as big as Texas."
Her mother recalled how Williams shared her lunches at school with classmates.
"She took the time to help other people, a lot of times before herself," Reggie VanBerg said. "And she just could not wait to get home each night with her daughter."
On her Facebook page, Williams said she graduated from Arlington Heights High School in 1997. She describes her daughter as "such a little ham." Amid several photos of Tisiphone, which begin shortly after her birth, is a picture of a locket with the words: "My little girl yesterday, my friend today, my daughter forever."
David Johnson said Tisiphone's name is from a figure in Greek mythology, which he enjoys studying.
"I thought it was pretty, different and unique," he said, tears welling, "and Christina liked it too."
'I heard her scream'
The pond is at Amelia Parc Senior Apartments, an upscale complex with a landmark clock tower near the mixmaster of East and Southeast Loop 820, Interstate 20 and Mansfield Highway at the border of Fort Worth, Forest Hill and Kennedale.
David Johnson said Williams had broken her left foot Monday and was in a cast.
He was still at work as she headed home with Tisiphone, and they were talking on the phone.
"We were just talking about everyday common stuff," he said. "I heard her scream and she said there was an accident. She said, 'I'm in water.' I said, 'Hang up with me and call 911.'"
Sgt. Cynthia Blake, supervisor of the Fort Worth police traffic investigation unit, said witnesses told investigators that "she just plowed through the stop sign."
The Kia clipped the front right quarter panel of an Acura that was southbound on the service road.
The driver of the Acura also called 911.
"I don't know what happened. I hit my horn," the driver told the dispatcher.
"I was on the access road and she just pulled out in front of me and I did everything I could not to hit her."
Ila Johnson wondered why Williams did not roll down a window to escape. The windows weren't electric.
"It's an educated guess," David Johnson said, "but what killed them both was a five-letter word -- panic."
The rescue attempt
Piszor, 20, of Grapevine, said he and his friend Nathan Brown, 21, of McKinney were southbound on the access road when the crash happened in front of them.
He said Williams' car started to spin and appeared to accelerate as it broke through the fence and entered the water.
The car ended up "a pretty good ways out there" in the pond, Piszor said.
Piszor said Brown immediately jumped in while Piszor called 911. He then joined Brown in the pond and tried to break the windows.
It wasn't working, so Piszor swam back to shore, got the heavy tool and tried, unsuccessfully, to swim back to the car with it.
"By that time, the front of the car was already pretty much submerged," he said. "My friend said the woman inside was on the phone talking to 911."
Piszor said Brown suffered a few cuts during the attempted rescue. Piszor said he wasn't sure his friend wanted to talk about the incident.
"He's pretty torn up about the whole thing," he said.
Correspondent Bob Booth and staff writer Bill Miller contributed to this report.
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