A 28-year-old Turlock woman who was killed on I-580 earlier this week while traveling home from a spontaneous trip to San Francisco leaves behind three children, and her family is seeking help with funeral expenses and money for the kids.
Amber Reaves was killed early Monday morning when, for unclear reasons, she was walking along the I-580 freeway outside the vehicle she had been riding in. Reaves was struck by another vehicle, as Bay Area News Group reported, being driven by a 71-year-old Castro Valley woman, in the eastbound lanes.
Reaves had been traveling in a white Chevrolet Malibu with several other people before she got out of the car. It's unclear where she got out of the vehicle, but she was reportedly "in a lane of traffic" on eastbound I-580 near the connector to northbound Highway 238, in Castro Valley.
A family member tells Bay Area News Group that Reaves and some friends made a "spur-of-the-moment decision” to go to San Francisco on Sunday, and they were traveling back to Turlock around 5:10 a.m. Monday when Reaves was killed.
Her sister, Ashley Praxmarer, has set up a GoFundMe to help with the funeral expenses and the children she left behind. "She carved her own path in life and was trying to make a better life for herself and her children when it ended too soon," Praxmarer writes.
Reaves leaves behind a 9-year-old son, an 8-year-old daughter and a 2-year-old daughter. A family member told Bay Area News Group that she had decided to pursue a career in medicine, and was "taking classes at a junior college before applying to UC Davis."
The circumstances of the crash remain under investigation.
As of Thursday afternoon, the crowdfunding campaign has raised $2,200 of a $10,000 goal.
