Family and friends mourn 24-year-old Apopka woman, killed in fiery car crash

A home now marked “condemned” stands as a reminder of a deadly crash that took the life of 24-year-old Tatiana Reyes, leaving behind grieving loved ones and a young child without her parents.Family members say the house, damaged in the crash and subsequent fire, is now unlivable — and a painful symbol of where Tatiana Reyes lost her life.“She was very outspoken,” said Larissa Reyes, Tatiana’s sister. “She lit up the room. She spoke what was on her mind. She was a good mother,.Larissa Reyes said the sisters were especially close, growing up together in a tight-knit family.“We have no brothers, it’s just sisters,” she said. “There’s four of us, and we were all around the same age group, so we were all very close.”Friends describe Tatiana Reyes as energetic and always on the go.“She was super outgoing,” said friend Teerana Persaud. “She was like an activities girlie. She would find anything to get into — going to the arcade — she loved going to the beach.”According to the Florida Highway Patrol, the crash happened Saturday morning when Reyes and her girlfriend, Lyric Torres, were driving on South Hawthorne Avenue. Troopers say the vehicle lost control, ran off the road, struck a utility pole and then crashed into a home on West Ella J. Gilmore Street. Both the car and the house caught fire.Family members say the couple was heading home at the time.“We stay right around the corner from where the accident happened,” Reyes said. “She was on her way home.”Both Reyes and Torres died in the crash, leaving their 6-year-old daughter without either parent.“They loved each other,” Reyes said. “They loved my niece and my niece loved them. My niece didn’t lose just one person, she lost two.”Troopers believe speed was likely a factor in the crash. In the aftermath, Larissa Reyes is calling for safety improvements along the road.“Changes will help,” she said. “They put speed bumps on the other side of the road — why didn’t they add speed bumps on this side of the road?” Reyes also shared well wishes for the family displaced from the home, who told WESH 2 they are doing OK.