Five children heading to Disney killed in fiery Florida crash

FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. — A church van packed with children was headed to Walt Disney World when it got caught in a fiery pileup involving two 18-wheelers. Seven people, including five of the youngsters, died in the crash.

On Friday, investigators tried to determine what triggered the accident, which happened outside Gainesville in clear weather on a straight, flat stretch of Interstate 75, a busy highway that connects Florida to the rest of the South.

Two vehicles travelling north — a tractor-trailer and a car — smashed into each other and then burst through a metal guardrail, slamming into another semi-trailer and the southbound van carrying the children. Diesel fuel leaked, and the mass erupted into a fireball, the Florida Highway Patrol said.

A fifth car, unable to avoid the chaos, sped through and hit people who were thrown from the van, the highway patrol said.

Five of the children from a Pentecostal church in Marksville, La., and the two truck drivers died. At least eight others were injured, some seriously.

“It is a heartbreaking event,” Lt. Patrick Riordan said Friday.

He did not identify the church involved, but a member of the Avoyelles House of Mercy told The Gainesville Sun on Friday that her church was stunned.

The children ranged in age from 8 to 14.

“It’s unbelievable. Everybody is in shock. We lost five of our children,” church member Maxine Doughty said. “We had our Last Supper Sunday, and the pastor said to live our lives like each day is the last day.”

Church officials did not immediately respond to phone calls.

A pregnant woman who was among those injured delivered a baby, according to a message posted on the Facebook page of the Lighthouse United Pentecostal Church Omaha and signed by Kevin V. Cox, the Pentecostal church’s Louisiana district superintendent.

Vinnie DeVita said he was driving south and narrowly escaped the crash. He saw it in the rear-view mirror, immediately behind him, according to a report by Orlando television station WKMG . “If I had stepped on the brake when I heard the noise, undoubtedly, I would have been in that accident,” DeVita said.