Crime & Safety
Sprayberry Student Dies in Florida Crash
Five victims in Sunday's pileup on I-75 were members of a Marietta church ministering to Brazilian immigrants.
A student and her parents were among the 10 people killed Sunday when six tractor-trailers and at least five cars crashed on Interstate 75 near Gainesville, FL.
A employee told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that junior Leticia Carmo was killed in the horrific chain-reaction accident, and her younger sister, freshman Lidiane Carmo, was critically injured.
They were riding on the first of two vans returning from an Orlando church conference to a Marietta-area church that serves Brazilian immigrants and has a name that roughly translates as the International Church of the Restoration, WSB-TV reported on its 4 p.m. newscast.
Find out what's happening in East Cobbwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
A Carmo family friend, Barbara Almaida, said five of the 10 people who died in the accident were on that van, the Gainesville Sun said. She identified the dead as the church's pastor, Jose Carmo Jr., and his wife, Adriana; daughter Leticia; the pastor's brother, Edsom Carmo; and Edsom Carmo's fiancee, Rose.
Lidiane Carmo was in critical condition Monday morning, Shands at the University of Florida hospitalspokeswoman Lindsey Robertson said, according to the AJC.
Find out what's happening in East Cobbwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Nine other church members were injured while riding in the second van, WSB said.
Fog and heavy smoke from a brush fire eliminated visibility on the interstate and caused a three-vehicle wreck about midnight Saturday, but Florida authorities reopened the highway at 3:30 a.m. Sunday, 15 minutes before the fatal pileup, The Associated Press reported.
The Alachua County Sheriff's Office has released the audio of the 911 call reporting the cataclysmic crash, which includes the sounds of repeated collisions.
CBS News has posted a transcript of the 12-minute call, which ends with the caller in tears.
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.