Twin Sees Car Crash That Kills Brother

Jeremiah Wilson had a four-minute head start on his twin, Heath. But Heath would grow to be an inch taller. Jeremiah was left-handed, Heath used his right. They parted their hair on opposite sides--”mirror twins,” their mother, Pattie Wilson, said Sunday, her voice breaking. The Garden Grove boys liked the same shoes and baggy flannel shirts, but wore them in different colors, she said. When Heath fell behind on some credits and transferred to a continuation high school this year to catch up, his older brother transferred there too so they could graduate together.

And the 18-year-old fraternal twins were together at the end Saturday night, when Jeremiah was killed in a car crash that his brother watched unfold in a trailing car.

“I tried to save him,” Heath said quietly, surrounded on his driveway by aunts and friends and grandmas. “I gave him mouth-to-mouth. But I couldn’t. . . . “

Westminster police said Jeremiah was dead at the scene of the 10 p.m. accident, as was his passenger and best friend, Hanif Haidar, 17, also of Garden Grove, and the driver of the car Jeremiah broadsided.

Jeremiah’s 1995 Saturn lost control and swung across opposing traffic lanes, colliding with a 1987 Mazda driven by Oscar Wang, 44, of Irvine, who was fatally injured, said Police Lt. Mike Schliskey.

Wang’s passenger, 29-year-old Arturo Carrillo, was taken to UC Irvine Medical Center in Orange with a broken shoulder and internal injuries, Schliskey said. Carrillo was in stable condition Sunday night, the hospital said.

Wang’s family could not be reached.

Schliskey said it was unclear if the occupants were wearing their seat belts, and the investigation was continuing. The family said there were no drugs or alcohol involved or found in the youths’ cars.

Having witnessed the whole thing, Heath described the events Sunday that had claimed his soul mate less than 24 hours earlier.

The Wilson brothers and four friends were on their way back to the twins’ house after one of the friends had the name of his mother tattooed on his arm.

As Jeremiah drove his rebuilt salvaged Saturn south on Golden West Street, his best friend his only passenger, Heath trailed him in his own used car, with the three other youths.

Jeremiah hit the railroad tracks that cross the street south of Hazard Avenue and his car went airborne, his brother said. It landed with sparks and veered right first, but there were parked cars at that edge of Golden West Street, Heath said.

His brother’s car veered left so hard that it skidded across the roadway and struck Wang’s car right at the driver door, Heath said. The force of the crash, he added, pushed both cars--crunched together as one--onto the curb of the northbound side, where he rushed to his brother’s side.

“He tried to save him. . . . I’m just glad he was there in his last minutes,” Pattie Wilson said.

At 6 feet 8 and 6 feet 9, the twins played basketball together almost every day with friends at a grade school near their home.

They gave each other nicknames: Heath’s was “Crazy H,” Hanif’s was “Birdy,” Jeremiah’s was “J Dog.” A poster at the crash site, surrounded Sunday night by candles and flowers, wished the boys farewell.

Heath and his mother said “Birdy” was from Afghanistan.

His parents sent him here, along with an older brother, to live with an uncle nine years ago. When things didn’t work out with the uncle, the boys moved into an apartment and supported themselves while attending school.

He hadn’t seen his parents in five or six years, the Wilson family said.

Hanif graduated from La Quinta High School early at 16, and at the time of his death he was enrolled at Orange Coast College and held two jobs: at Burger King and at Blockbuster Video.

“I was really proud Jeremiah got close to him,” Pattie Wilson said, then laughed. “He was kinda nerdy, into education big time, and that was a good influence on Jeremiah.”

It was with some pain Sunday that the mother of twins remembered how Jeremiah had saved his twin brother 16 years ago when they were both 2 years old. Jeremiah had seen his brother slip into the family’s spa, and ran down the hall to fetch their mother.

“He said, ‘Mommy, Heath in water.’ He was drowning. When I got there he was at the bottom of the Jacuzzi. The doctor said had Jeremiah come a minute or two later even, there would have been brain damage because with the hot water it would happen after four minutes,” she said.

“I can’t believe one of them is gone,” Pattie Wilson said, looking at a photograph of her sons at 8 months old in kitchen sinks at their grandmother’s house. “Why did God give me two and take away one?” she said tearfully.

“And to have his brother there and not be able to save him. The cops had to push Heath away from Jeremiah,” she said. “He was trying to save him and he was already gone.”

Times correspondent Jason Leopold contributed to this report.