Frisco Family Suffers

Oklahoma Truck Wreck Semi Death Wrongful Killed

Shelby Hayes of Frisco died early Sunday morning, spelling the end to three generations of her family.

Her son, her husband and her mother were killed Friday when a tractor-trailer plowed into a line of vehicles stopped because of an earlier crash on Interstate 44 in northeastern Oklahoma.

The 35-year-old stay-at-home mom was trapped in the family's vehicle on the Oklahoma turnpike for two hours and never regained consciousness at a Missouri hospital.

"Two complete families got wiped out," said Robin Bellemore, who lives across the street from Shelby Hayes and her husband, Scott, both of whom were only children. Shelby's mother, Cindy Olson, was widowed and lived in the Denton County town of Crossroads.

"Life is never fair," Bellemore said.

Shelby Hayes didn't get the chance to mourn the loss of her only son, Ethan. The vivacious 7-year-old lit up the neighborhood where his family lived on the corner of a cul-de-sac in Frisco.

She didn't get the chance to mourn her husband of 16 years, who had plans for a better life. Scott Hayes, 38, worked at SuperTarget on Eldorado Parkway in Frisco and was studying computers at ITT Technical Institute.

And she didn't get a chance to say goodbye to her mother, Cindy Olson, 55, who worked in Plano as a relocation specialist and doted on her extended family.

With Shelby Hayes' passing, the death toll from Friday's wreck stood at 10. A family from Oklahoma City and a Phoenix couple were also killed. The couple's 12-year-old daughter was listed in serious condition at Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Mo. Her condition was upgraded Sunday from critical.

The Oklahoma Highway Patrol is investigating the crash for possible criminal charges, which is routine after any fatality. The cause is unclear. Police say they don't think 76-year-old Donald Creed tried to stop his tractor-trailer.

An initial highway patrol report said Creed's vehicle was traveling at an unsafe speed for traffic conditions. The speed limit is 75 mph.

Wanda Hayes of Garland, Scott's mother, traveled to Joplin, Mo., to be with Shelby "and make arrangements to get my boys home" when she heard about the crash.

"I'm feeling very ... I don't know how I feel right now. I'm angry at how the accident occurred," she said Sunday.

When their car was hit, Olson and the Hayes family were headed to Missouri for the funeral of Shelby Hayes' great-grandfather, who died Tuesday at the age of 102.

"Like most of us, they were just going about enjoying life and probably didn't think about it," said Charles Randall of Garland, who reconnected with Scott Hayes, his childhood friend, only a few months ago. Both graduated from South Garland High School.

"He was a hard, hard worker," Randall said. "He was planning for his future. He will be sorely missed."

Shelby Hayes graduated from Naaman Forest High School in Garland. She loved all things Twilight, loved animals and had dreams of traveling the world, according to friend Sadie Carey, who grew up in Garland with the couple and now lives in Dallas.

"They had been in love since she was in high school, and it made me think better of the world [that] they were married and together so long when others have given up," said Carey, who was a bridesmaid at their wedding in the early 1990s.

Shelby and Scott Hayes would drop everything to help a friend, Carey said. And their world revolved around Ethan. He attended kindergarten at Gunstream Elementary two years ago, according to Frisco ISD officials. Friends said Shelby Hayes had been homeschooling Ethan this past year.

He was the total opposite of his parents, Bellemore said. Where they were quiet, Ethan was the chatterbox.

"It will be strange ... not to see Ethan, Shelby and Scott and say hi when they come back from the grocery store," their neighbor said. "Things happen, but this just seemed like it could have been prevented."

Olson was an inventory specialist at ExcellerateHRO, a joint venture between Towers Perrin and EDS, according to her friend, Mary Abernathy. Olson also held a real estate broker's license.

"She was the consummate relocation professional that helped many transferees make that difficult move from one location to another," Abernathy said in an e-mail. "She was an excellent negotiator when it came to selling the homes we had in inventory and was a delight to work with. I'm proud to call her my friend."

Cremation is planned for the Hayes family. Their remains will be transported to Garland, where a memorial service will be planned later.

Olson's uncle plans to have her cremated remains spread over her own mother's grave in Joplin.

Carmen Foster said she will miss Olson, her next-door neighbor for the past two years. The pair would often chat at the mailbox at the end of the day and over the back fence they shared as they tended to their yards.

"We always talked about gardens because she was so good at it," said Foster, who was still in disbelief Sunday over her friend's death.

"That could have been me," she said. "It could be anyone, anytime, anyplace."