Fiery crash claims the life of 29-year-old and leaves Jenks family without home

JENKS, Okla. — A neighbor said it’s a miracle no one else was killed Thursday night after a woman drove off the Creek Turnpike, crashing into a Jenks home around 8:20 p.m.

The driver of the pickup truck, 29-year-old Mckenzie Gee of Sapulpa, died on the scene according to OHP.

Janet Gee described her daughter as a young woman with a fabulous mind, who had survived a very serious burn injury in May and had been released to return to work in October.

Now Janet is grappling with the news of her daughter’s death, while the family that lived in the house that caught fire no longer have a place to call home.

On Thursday, flames could be seen shooting through the roof of the home in the Southern Reserve neighborhood right off the Creek Turnpike.

“When I got here this thing was an inferno, it looked like hell, the whole neighborhood looked like hell,” said Kristopher Hunt. The next-door neighbor said he could see Gee’s truck wedged inside the house.

Images captured on Friday on drone footage show a burned-out shell of a house.

OHP said Gee’s pickup left the Creek Turnpike, driving through an OTA fence and crashing into the side of a home before catching fire.

Only three family members were home at the time the fire spread throughout the home.

The family returned on Friday to look at the damage from the devastating fire.

Veronica Davis, who did not want to go on camera, said she was at home at the time of the crash with her 13-and 14-year-old boys.

The teens were on the other side of the house playing video games, instead of in their bedroom when the truck crashed into that side of the home.

Davis said she heard a loud boom and she and the boys escaped out a back door.

Investigators with OHP are still trying to figure out exactly what happened and what caused Gee to leave the roadway:

“Normally when that happens like that it’s a medical incident, or something like that, it’s not something that you just continue to drive that, that path after you’ve left the roadway,” said Trooper Eric Foster with OHP.

He added that they’re waiting to hear more from the Medical Examiner’s Office on what may have caused her to leave the roadway.

Gee was a certified personal trainer at Lifetime Fitness in South Tulsa. Her mother said she was well known in the equestrian world and loved teaching yoga.

Neighbor Kristopher Hunt, who did not even know the young woman, had this to say:

“It’s way too young to not be here anymore,” Hunt noted, “To have the period of your life put, before you’re thirty?”

The lack of a more secure barrier behind the homes that line the Creek Turnpike also had Hunt asking questions.

“They need to do something to protect these people, to protect the houses, not just my house, everybody, all of these houses all along here,” Hunt said.

“We are sorry to hear about the tragic loss of life in last night’s crash on the Creek Turnpike,” the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority said in a statement. “Once completed, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol’s report will allow us insight into the cause of the crash. With that information, we can better assess the situation. Our thoughts and prayers are with those impacted. It is not unusual for someone living near a turnpike or highway to ask about barriers for their area. We take each conversation seriously. The OHP report on last night’s accident plus other traffic and engineering data will help us determine how to proceed.”

A member of the Homeowners Association at the Southern Reserve Neighborhood also said they’ve been asking the Turnpike Authority for a more secure barrier to separate the homes from the Creek Turnpike for two years.

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