Oklahoma: Father of OSU homecoming crash suspect says daughter 'not a bad person'
The father of a 25-year-old woman, who is accused of ramming her vehicle into a crowd at the Oklahoma State University homecoming parade killing four people Saturday morning, said his daughter is not an alcoholic.
Adacia Chambers, a Stillwater resident, was arrested on a DUI charge after the morning crash and remained jailed into Saturday night. Stillwater police Capt. Kyle Gibbs said Chambers’ Hyundai Elantra struck an unoccupied motorcycle of an officer who was working security at the parade, then went into the crowd.
Floyd Cambers, Adacia’s father, told The Oklahoman he couldn’t believe his daughter was involved in the deadly wreck. He described her as “timid” and said she had attended homecoming festivities Friday night with family but that her boyfriend had told him she was home by 10 p.m.
"This is just not who she is. They're going to paint her into a horrible person but this is not (her)," Floyd Chambers told the paper. Floyd Chambers said his daughter wasn’t a student at Oklahoma State but thought her boyfriend was or is a student at the school.
“I know that she didn’t do this on purpose,” he said. “This is just a bad accident.” Four people were killed and 44 others were injured in the crash that happened at around 10:30 a.m. Saturday morning. One of the four killed included a 2-year-old child. Eight of the injured were airlifted to hospitals with critical injuries.
Witnesses told KOTV the car slammed into parade watchers at a high rate of speed.
Dave Kapple of Houston told the Stillwater News Press that he and his son were about 10 feet away when they saw the vehicle barreling into the crowd. "We heard somebody scream, `Look out!.' (The driver) plowed through a police motorcycle, and then a crowd of people," Kapple said. "People were flying everywhere."
Another witness, Konda Walker, an Alaska resident and 1991 OSU alum, told the paper, "At first we thought it was part of the show. People were flying 30 feet into the air like rag dolls."
Larry Smith told the paper he could see the driver was a woman. "I was sitting right here and she came plowing through," he said. "All I saw was bodies flying, kids flying. It was horrible."
The victims of the accident were remembered with a moment of silence before Oklahoma State’s football game against Kansas University. Most of the OSU players knelt on the sideline in prayer.
"We are heartbroken at this tragedy," Stillwater Mayor Gina Noble told reporters at the news conference.
Oklahoma State President Burns Hargis said there had been discussion about canceling the football game, but it went on as scheduled.
Hundreds of fans wearing the school's bright orange and black colors had to walk by the intersection, less than three blocks from the stadium, as they headed to the afternoon game. National Guard troops kept watch as officials with the Red Cross and state medical examiner's office continued their work.
By Saturday evening, the bodies that had been at the scene encircled by orange cones for most of the day had been carried away. The car and motorcycle had been loaded onto tow trucks. Clothes, water bottles and pieces of the car had been hauled away in large plastic bags.
It's not the first tragedy to strike events connected to Oklahoma State sports programs. Ten people, including two OSU men's basketball players, were killed in a 2001 plane crash while returning from a game in Colorado. And Oklahoma State women's basketball coach Kurt Budke and assistant Miranda Serna were among four killed in a plane crash in Arkansas in 2011 while on a recruiting trip.
"The families, I know, and these victims will never be able to understand this, nor will we," Hargis said. "But the Cowboy family pulls together. Unfortunately we've had to do it before and we're going to do it again."
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