MUNFORDVILLE, Ky. — A truck crossed a Kentucky interstate median yesterday 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. 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 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 about 10 a.m. He couldn’t confirm their identities or injuries because of privacy laws, but said it was his understanding they were the only survivors.
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