Five children heading to Disney World in a church van from Louisiana died along with two truck drivers in a fiery crash on Interstate 75 in north Florida, the Florida Highway Patrol said Friday.
The children were travelling in a large passenger van from Avoyelles Parish, Lt Patrick Riordan said during a news conference on Friday morning in Alachua, which is south of Gainesville.
On Thursday, a big rig and a passenger vehicle collided in the northbound lanes of the highway and continued across the guardrail and into the path of another big truck and the church van, investigators said.
"Once those semis struck, they both caught fire," Riordan said.
He said a fifth vehicle came through and either struck people who had been ejected from the vehicle or debris. Some 50 gallons of diesel fuel spilled, flaming the fire that also damaged the road in some spots.
At least eight people were sent to the hospital with injuries.
Vinnie DeVita said he was driving south at the time and narrowly escaped the crash - he said it saw it happen in the rearview mirror, immediately behind him, according to a report by WKMG.
"If I had stepped on the brake when I heard the noise, undoubtedly, I would have been in that accident," DeVita said. "And then within probably 15 to 20 seconds of it all, it exploded. I mean, just a ball of flames."
"We kept seeing these little explosions and fire," she said. "The heat, it was insane."