Assistance sought for Menifee family that lost two in collision

A GoFundMe site has been established for a Menifee family that lost two members in a traffic collision July 14 – the second fatal collision this month involving Menifee residents vacationing out of state.

Aulaiwon Culver, 47, and her daughter Lily, age 12, died when their minivan was struck by a train while attempting to cross the tracks in Cokeville, Wyoming, as originally reported on the news website svinews.com July 17 and additionally reported Tuesday on patch.com. Eric Culver, 50, and his son Logan, 15, were airlifted to a hospital in Utah for treatment.

Svinews quoted Captain Brian Andrews of the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office as saying that deputies had closed a portion of Highway 30 due to a previous accident. According to Andrews, several vehicles attempted to bypass the closure by taking a Union Pacific access road.

“Several individuals decided to bypass a temporary road closure and detour on the railroad right-of-way,” said Andrews. “During the course of one vehicle’s detour, their vehicle was struck by a north-moving train while attempting to cross the tracks from the west side to the east.”

A GoFundMe site for the family can be accessed here.

The incident occurred just two days after three sisters from Menifee and their mother were killed in a traffic collision on Interstate 10 during a family vacation.