Elise Caffee and her husband, Dan, had arrived in Cancun on March 6 to attend a wedding, her family said on Instagram. Photo: Elise Caffee/Instagram
A popular Utah-based parenting and travel vlogger has died a week after sustaining burns from steaming asphalt in a 10-car pileup in Mexico, according to her family.
“We are absolutely heartbroken to share the news of Elise’s passing tonight,” the family of Elise Caffee posted late Wednesday (March 12) on an Instagram account set up to provide updates on her condition.
“She held on so long and fought so hard against an impossibly difficult set of circumstances.”
The mum of three regularly documented her travels and shared parental travel tips with the nearly 47,000 followers of her Instagram account, 3KidsTravel.
Caffee and her husband, Dan, had arrived in Cancun on March 6 to attend a wedding, her family said on Instagram.
While en route to their hotel, “they were involved in a 10+ car pileup” on a freeway, “where a truck full of hot asphalt hit them, flipping their car, trapping Elise underneath, and dumping steaming hot asphalt on top of her as well as the people in front of the other cars.”
The asphalt was hot enough to burn through emergency responders’ protective gloves, hampering efforts to pull people out from under their cars.
Dan Caffee suffered minor injuries, but their driver was killed. Elise Caffee’s face was spared, but the rest of her body was badly burned, her family said.
After being stabilised, Caffee was flown back to Salt Lake City and transferred to the University of Utah’s burn unit.
Her loved ones were able to visit, and her three daughters braided her hair, the family recounted. Caffee clung to life for a week before succumbing to her injuries.
“Absolutely everything that could have been done for her was done,” her bereft family noted. “We are so grateful she was able to make it back home to say goodbye to her family before leaving us.” – New York Daily News/Tribune News Service
