Neighbors, Friends Distraught After Women Killed In Violent Crash

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MIAMI (CBSMiami) – New details have emerged about the woman killed in a cab Friday.

65-year-old Pamela Plummer was in the back seat of a taxi when a City of Miami dump truck barreled into the cab, killing Plummer instantly and causing nine other vehicles to crash at the intersection of NW 7th Street and 17th Avenue.

The crash happened just three miles from Plummer's home.

Some of Plummer's grieving neighbors spoke exclusively to CBS4 reporter Donna Rapado.

They told Rapado they were in shock, Plummer's back story making an already heartbreaking situation even sadder.

"We're kind of her neighbor family.  She was a great person," said longtime neighbor and friend Marta Paz.

Surveillance cameras at the Bowl Bar and Valero Gas Station across 7th Street recorded the violent crash.

In the video the City dump truck is seen plowing full speed into the stopped cab just a block from Marlins Park.

The truck took out the cab, which burst into flames, and knocked nine other vehicles into spins and collisions.

Plummer's neighbors immediately knew she was the passenger in the cab as soon as they heard the woman killed took a cab everywhere for more than 20 years.

"I pick up my phone, I texted her asking her how she was doing because she was in the hospital for 45 days and unfortunately it was her," said Paz.

The violent, killer crash was horrific enough but Plummer's story gets even more heartbreaking.

Plummer had only been home for three weeks after a month in ICU and in a coma.   She spent nearly another month in rehab.

"The doctors were very surprised that she survived at all," Paz told Rapado.  "Then she was in a rehab for three weeks and now this happened.  And she just told us two days ago that finally she was able to walk her dog by herself and that she was feeling great."

Neighbors are now trying to figure out how to care for Plummer's beloved dog Ike, who was home alone, blind and needs daily insulin shots.

Over at Jackson Memorial Hospital the cab driver continued to recover Saturday.

From his bedside he described how he passed out immediately after the truck slammed into his cab.

"And I heard that lady, the passenger that was in the car with me she died instantly and she fell on top of me on my side there between the two seats in the front of the car," said Sven Austin.

Ironically, and perhaps saddest of all, Plummer always took a cab everywhere because she was afraid of dying in a car accident.

Neighbors said Pamela Plummer's sister will fly in from Mississippi this week.

Meanwhile, the investigation into the accident continues.

That includes finding answers to the big question everyone's asking: why did that dump truck barrel thru at full speed, never slowing down.