Advertisement 'You are my sunshine': Mom describes heartbreaking loss of baby in crash Baby killed in crash on Maine Turnpike in Wells Share Shares Copy Link Copy

The mother of an 11-month-old girl who was killed Monday in a crash on the Maine Turnpike wants people to know how special her little girl was.The family of Reece Degen said she was always smiling and waved to anybody. Her life was cut short a month before her first birthday."I want people to know, cherish your babies. Cherish your babies," Reece's great-grandmother, Sonia Gardner said.Gardner received a call Monday afternoon that her granddaughter and great-granddaughter were involved in an accident on the Maine Turnpike in Wells.Gardner's granddaughter, Brianna Degen, was a passenger in the car. Her friend, Alyssa Cray, was driving. Reece and Cray's two children were in the back.Reece suffered a massive head injury when Cray lost control of the car.The car slammed into a guardrail and came to a stop in a ditch near trees.A passerby stopped to help and told Degen to sing to her daughter."The last thing she heard from me was, 'You are my sunshine.' She loved that song," Degen said.Reece was pronounced dead at York Hospital."She was always happy, and she loved everybody and everything, and she definitely didn't deserve this," Degen said.Degen is recovering from a broken leg at Maine Medical Center in Portland.Cray and her two children were treated for their injuries and released.Maine State Police said they are looking into a number of contributing factors in the crash, including bad weather and speed."We will look at the speed and see if we can show a speed on there. The weather conditions, where it was a pouring rain as well, we may never be able to actually indicate what the speed of the vehicles was traveling at the time. There (were) no skid marks left at the scene because of the weather conditions," Lt. Erik Baker said.While police continue the investigation, Reece's family tries to cope with her tragic death."They always say God never gives you more than you can handle. Well that's not true in this case, because we've had enough of his tests. He took a sweet innocent baby for no reason at all," Gardner said.WMTW News 8 was unable to reach Cray for comment on the crash.Police said they are asking anyone who witnessed the crash to come forward.Baker said investigators are conducting a vehicle autopsy and the investigation could take weeks.