![]() ![]() The ranch is run mainly through donations, so a GoFundMe has been set up to help with funeral expenses, medical costs and counseling, according to the page’s organizer. The scene of an accident that claimed the lives of 10 people, including 9 children, in Butler County, Alabama, on Saturday, June 19, 2021. “We lost eight young people that can make a difference in our world, we lost eight young people that didn’t have a chance to have their own children, we lost eight young people that can’t break the cycle of where they’ve been and change it for their children,” Smith said. “Unfortunately we lost the other eight passengers.” “Her life was saved, and we’re so blessed with that,” Smith said. She was likely saved by bystanders who pulled her from the vehicle while she was unconscious and trapped inside, Smith said. The director lost two of her own children in the crash, Smith said, and she is currently hospitalized in serious but stable condition. The lone survivor from the Girls Ranch vehicle was the Tallapoosa County Girls Ranch director, who was driving the vehicle at the time of the accident, according to Michael Smith, the CEO of the Alabama Sheriffs Youth Ranches. Girls Ranch director lost 2 children in accident NTSB investigators will be working in coordination with the Alabama Highway Patrol. The “NTSB investigation will focus on vehicle technologies such as forward collision warning systems, CMV fuel tank integrity, motor carrier operations and occupant survivability,” the agency said in a statement. The National Transportation Safety Board announced Sunday afternoon it was sending a team of 10 investigators to the scene of the accident, describing it as a “multi-vehicle crash.” The team is expected to arrive Sunday evening. ![]() The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency has asked members of the public who may have photos or videos of the accident to submit them to law enforcement. Garlock noted that she was properly restrained in a car seat, but said the impact was too powerful. The infant was taken to Regional Medical Center, where she was later pronounced dead. In the other vehicle, the father was pronounced dead at the scene Garlock said. ![]() The driver of the small Girls Ranch bus was pulled from the burning vehicle, Garlock said, but rescue personnel were unable to reach the girls in time. We are very, very fortunate.”ĭriver of Girls Ranch bus was the only survivor in that vehicle “Because this was tragic for a lot of people. “Those families’ lives are changed forever, and I hope that somehow people will find a way to be OK,” she said. Willis said she was “very grateful” that her family was able to “escape” but acknowledged “there’s a little guilt aspect.” Some people were stuck on the side of the road because their cars were on fire, she said. Willis said she and her family were at the scene of the crash for five hours. “He was yelling – looking for nurses, doctors.” “There was a man without a shirt on,” she said. People were calling out for someone to call 911, Willis said, but no one knew what mile marker they were at. Willis’ husband helped pull one family – a man, a woman and their two kids – from a truck that had flipped on its side, she said. “I’m barefoot, standing on I-65, walking, walking far enough away,” she said. Willis said she grabbed her daughter and was walking as far away from the site of the accident as she could when she noticed vehicles had started to catch fire.ġ0 people, including 9 children, died in the accident, according to Butler County coroner Wayne Garlock. ![]() Immediately, she said her husband told her they needed to get their daughter out of the vehicle. Their car had hit a guard rail, setting off the airbags and sending them into the grass on the median. Willis was in the backseat of the car with her daughter when she felt an impact, she said. At the moment of the wreck “it wasn’t downpouring,” she said, but there was still a lot of water on the road. Lacey Willis said the weather had been bad about an hour prior to the crash. A tropical depression that had been known as Tropical Storm Claudette dumped heavy rain across the Southeast on Saturday after it came ashore in southeastern Louisiana early that morning.Ī CNN producer witnessed the accident while driving home to Atlanta from a family beach trip in Destin, Florida, with her husband and their 6-month-old daughter. The accident happened on I-65 northbound at mile marker 138 on Saturday afternoon during storms that swept through the state, according to Garlock. Tropical storm warnings are in effect for North Carolina as Claudette moves across Southeast ![]()
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