Oro Valley, AZ : Father of three killed in crash Sunday night around 6:20 at La Cholla and Lambert on July 20, 2014

A car crash on the northwest side killed a father of three while his oldest daughter clings on in a coma.

The crash happened Sunday night around 6:20 at La Cholla and Lambert. Oro Valley Police tell 9OYS a man driving a Chevy truck plowed through a red light and smashed into a Volkswagon beetle.

The driver of the beetle, 48-year-old Karl Mason, died instantly.

The Mason family was heading to youth group that night -- Karl and his daughter Skylar in one car while his wife, Meta, and their other daughter drove in another.

Grace Community Church tells 9OYS Meta Mason was stuck in traffic caused by the accident when she got the call.

Exactly one day later, hundreds came to the church to pray, pay their respects and grieve.

"I don't understand why this would happen to a perfectly great family," a young girl said.

"The truth is, we live in a fallen and broken world," Pastor David Hillis said. "A world where there's a lot of pain and suffering that make no sense and that can't be explained."

The church tells 9OYS that Karl Mason had been battling cancer, just diagnosed this summer.

"Maybe he was going to die from that -- God didn't want him to suffer from that," another young girl wonders.

Karl died instantly in the crash, but his daughter Skylar, who is about to enter her senior year at Ironwood Ridge High School, is clinging on at University of Arizona Medical Center in a coma.

The church reports that doctors tell them her brain is swelling and her eyesight is failing, but there is strength in their prayers.

"Just believe," a close friend said. "Believe in what God can do."

God, and the same neurosurgeon who saved Gabby Giffords. He has taken on Skylar's case.

Source :
Father of three killed in crash, oldest daughter in coma