Seven people — including five children from Louisiana who were headed to Disney World — were killed in a crash involving two semitrucks and a number of passenger vehicles in Northern Florida on Thursday.
Florida Highway Patrol Lt. Patrick Riordan said at a news conference that as many as eight people were injured and taken to local hospitals in what he called an "extensive" and fiery wreck.
At about 3:40 p.m. ET, a semitruck and a car traveling north along Interstate 75 near Gainesville collided, crashed through the center guardrails and smashed into a southbound semitruck and a church van carrying the children. The trucks burst into flames. Another car then slammed into the wreckage.
The children ranged in age from 8 years old to teenagers and were traveling from Avoyelles Parish in central Louisiana, Riordan said. In a Facebook post, Kevin Cox of the Louisiana district of the United Pentecostal Church International said the van was carrying members of its Marksville, La., congregation. Nine children were in the van at the time of the accident, as were three adult women.
told the Ocala Star-Banner. "We are a small community with 6,500 people in town. ... It's affected everybody. That is what's so terrible about this."
The drivers of the two semitrucks, both adult males, were also killed. Officials say they don't yet know what caused the wreck and have opened an investigation.
Video from the scene showed bodies and debris strewn across the roadway as thick smoke billowed from the burning wreck.
https://www.npr.org/2019/01/04/6821...k-including-5-children-headed-to-disney-world
