11 killed when truck crashes into Mennonite church van on Ky. highway; 2 children survive

11 killed when truck, church van crash in Ky.

MUNFORDVILLE, Ky. — A truck crossed a Kentucky interstate median Friday and slammed head-on into a church van carrying a Mennonite family on its way to a wedding, killing 11 people.

State police Trooper Charles Swiney said two children survived the crash with the tractor-trailer on northbound Interstate 65.

A pastor for the family in the van said they were Mennonites on their way to a wedding in Iowa. Authorities say the truck driver, who was from Alabama, was also killed.

Officials say the tractor-trailer crossed the median and struck the van head-on around 5:30 a.m. CDT near Munfordville, about 75 miles south of Louisville.

Traffic on the interstate remained at a standstill at mid-afternoon, with backups up to 5 miles long on the closed northbound side. Wreckage from the tractor trailer was strewn across the northbound I-65 lanes.The heavily damaged van was mostly shrouded with tarpaulins. A van bench seat rested on the road with two childrens’ car seats attached.

The National Transportation Safety Board said it was dispatching a team to investigate the crash.

Pastor Leroy Kauffman with the Marrowbone Christian Brotherhood in Burkesville, about 55 miles southeast of the crash site, says the two surviving children were taken to a nearby hospital.

Joe Middleton, a supervisor at Caverna Memorial Hospital in Horse Cave, said two survivors from the accident were taken there and released around 10 a.m.

He couldn’t confirm their identities or injuries due to privacy laws, but said it was his understanding they were the only two survivors of the crash.

In a statement, Gov. Steve Beshear called the crash terrible.

“Our entire state grieves with the community and all the families will remain in our thoughts and prayers,” Beshear said.

Kauffman said there were three young children on board ages 1, 3 and 5. He said the father was an assistant pastor at the church and there was also a couple on board the van who were engaged to be married, although they were traveling to someone else’s wedding.

“They had a July wedding planned but they won’t need that now,” Kauffman said. “They’ll have a wedding in heaven I guess.”

He said the family’s house burned down in December and they had just moved into a new home built by church members.

“We’re experiencing a lot of heartache and a lot of sadness, but with that a hope,” Kauffman said. “We know where these people are going, they were all saved Christians and walking with the Lord.”

The crash is one of the deadliest traffic accidents in recent Kentucky history. On May 14, 1988, 27 people were killed in a fiery bus crash caused by a drunken driver going the wrong way on Interstate 71 in Carroll County. That bus was owned by the First Assembly of God church in Radcliff and was filled with youths returning from an amusement park.

Associated Press writers Dylan T. Lovan and Janet Cappiello Blake in Louisville, Ky.; Randall Dickerson and Kristin M. Hall in Nashville, Tenn.; Jeffrey McMurray in Lexington, Ky., and Nigel Duara in Iowa City, Iowa, contributed to this story.