“…car carrying a mother, her girlfriend and her two kids…”
I see the problem.
It’s possible that the “girlfriend” was simply another woman who is a friend, and that the reporter was trying to say that there was no man in the car to defend the woman driver and the children.
Don’t hetero women still say, “I’m going out with my girlfriends” or “Here, meet my girlfriend’s husband” as a figure of speech?