Teen Fell Asleep at Wheel Before Car Crashed, Killing Family: Cops

A Washington state father and his three children are dead after, police say, his 17-year-old daughter fell asleep behind the wheel as the family drove to see a dying relative in Idaho. Police say Spokane man Calvin "CJ" Miller and his children Dakota, 17, Jack, 10, and Delilah, 8, were 36 miles north of the small fishing town of Riggins, Idaho, Friday night when Dakota apparently nodded off, USA Today reports. She then, according to the accident report, "drove off the highway, striking a large pile of rocks sending the vehicle airborne. The vehicle struck another large pile of rocks, flipping the vehicle over end." It fell 30 feet over a cliff and into the Salmon River, where it landed upside down. Cold water streamed in through a broken driver's side window and the family drowned, authorities say.

The family was reported missing Saturday after they failed to reach their destination, and a fisherman found the car partially submerged in the river that morning, the Spokesman-Review reports. "I would give up anything for the rest of my life just to have them here with me," Zella Blair, the mother of Jack and Delilah as well as a 4-year-old brother they leave behind, tells Fox 28. Miller's current partner is also grieving, her stepdad tells KHQ. "They were just the best kids,” he says of the three children. “They were just too good, too good for this place.” GoFundMe campaigns have been set up for her as well as for Blair. KTVB reports that locals say the road the family was on can be dangerous: "It can be quite taxing. Especially on your eyes. Fall asleep, you'll go right off the canyon," says one. (More Idaho stories.)