MOORE HAVEN: An overloaded church van ran through a stop sign, crossed all four lanes of a rural highway and crashed into a canal, killing eight people and injuring 10 in Florida early Monday, authorities said.

The van with “Independent Haitian Church of Reformation” written on its side — was heading back to church in Fort Pierce, north of West Palm Beach on the Atlantic coast, after a weekend convention in Fort Myers, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.

“They didn’t see that stop sign. They shot right through it”, Glades County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Duane Pottorff said.Eighteen people were in the 15-seat van when the van crashed about 12:30am on Monday, said Lt. Gregory S. Bueno of the Highway Patrol.

The van had gone down an eight-to-10 foot embankment and landed in shallow water of the canal, which is lined with tall grass and weeds. The driver and seven passengers died. The 10 other passengers were taken to four hospitals. Among them was a 4-year-old child who was in serious condition.Four other adults were in critical condition.All the people in the van were from Fort Pierce.

Outside the Independent Haitian Assembly of God church, about three dozen friends and family members milled around the parking lot waiting for information.Church pastor Esperant Lexine, 57, was injured in the crash, said his daughter, Dina Lexine Sarver, 23.

In a phone interview from Tampa General Hospital, Sarver said that he had suffered internal bleeding and that she had been able to speak with him briefly.

Nozaire Nore, 48, suffered a broken leg in the crash. With his niece translating from Haitian Creole, Nore told Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers that the driver didn’t notice a curve in the road and couldn’t stop in time. Nore said he is a migrant farm labourer who travels to New Jersey and New York to pick apples, watermelons and other crops.Bueno said that at the time of the crash, it wasn’t foggy at the crash scene.

There is no lighting on the stretch of road, and the T-intersection is surrounded by farmland.

Published in Dawn, March 31st, 2015

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