Four members of British family die in US horror smash
Sat-nav ‘ordered illegal U-turn on busy highway’
A BRITISH family died in a car crash in Florida when their sat-nav wrongly told them to perform a U-turn on a busy intersection, police believe.
Tourists Adam Stephenson, 30, his wife Maryanne, 29, and his parents Bryan, 59, and Sheralyn, 56, died when a Ford pick-up truck collided with the side of their hired Mitsubishi Sedan.
The family, who are from Bristol, had just left the Kennedy Space Center, where they watched the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blast off on Monday afternoon.
They were making their way back to their rented holiday home in the city of Davenport, 76 miles away, when the heavy-duty pick-up ploughed into the passenger side of their white saloon as they turned left across east Florida’s state road 405.
US police said Mr Stephenson’s brother, who is yet to be named, was also on the family holiday, but had chosen to stay in their rental home.
He called 911 when his family failed to return from their day out, but police were already on their way to inform him of the devastating news.
Todd Hutchinson, deputy chief of the Titusville Police Department, said yesterday: ‘He lost his brother, his sister-in-law and his mum and dad. Very, very tragic.
‘He was doing the notifications last night to other family members over in England. That was a very tough notification, it was tough for all involved.
‘The job of first responders is to sustain life and to help people at scenes.
‘They were very frustrated because there was nothing that they could do for these
‘There was nothing the driver could do’
four people that died fairly instantly from the violent collision.’
US police said the crash occurred when Mr Stephenson attempted to perform an illegal U-turn on the intersection.
A smartphone recovered from the mangled wreckage was still displaying a U-turn instruction, even though the manoeuvre was prohibited on the highway.
Investigators believe the sat nav phone app tried to divert the family from their original route when it detected delays caused by another crash earlier in the day.
At the time, the area was heaving with traffic caused by the much-anticipated launch of Elon Musk’s Falcon 9 rocket from nearby Cape Canaveral.
Mr Stephenson’s ‘unfamiliarity’ with the area also helped contribute to the crash, police said.
The driver of the Ford pick-up truck, 28year-old James Walsh, was taken to hospital with minor injuries.
He told officers there was ‘ nothing he could do’ to avoid the collision, and claimed Mr Stephenson’s hire car pulled out right in front of him.
The crash was so severe that rescue teams had to use sophisticated cutting equipment to recover the bodies from the car, according to local media reports.
All four family members were pronounced dead at the scene.
Police in Titusville, the city where the crash occurred, are continuing to investigate.
Deputy chief Todd Hutchinson said: ‘At the point of the crash, the GPS indicated that the GPS had rerouted them.
‘It had instructed them to do a U-turn at that location, which was an intersection. It told them to go the other way because there was a crash up ahead of them.
‘They were in the process of making a U-turn at the time of the collision. We think one of the contributing factors was the unfamiliarity of the driver with the area.
‘The vehicle they collided with was a heavy- duty Ford pick-up truck driven by a local man who said that the vehicle pulled right in front of him and there was nothing he could do.
‘He was transported to the hospital with minor injuries. All four of the people who were in the car died at the scene.’
The deputy chief added: ‘We only know of one family member that stayed behind. He didn’t take the trip to Kennedy Space Center. He stayed behind.
‘When he noticed they didn’t return he called local law enforcement but they were already on their way to notify him.
A Foreign Office spokesman said: ‘We are supporting the family of four British people who have died in Florida.
‘Our thoughts are with them at this deeply difficult time.’