12 dead in Alabama due to Claudette, including 10 children

ATLANTA  — Ten people, including nine children, were killed Saturday in a fiery multivehicle crash about 35 miles south of Montgomery on Interstate 65.

Butler County Coroner Wayne Garlock said the vehicles likely hydroplaned on wet roads, with eight children, ages 4 to 17, killed in a van belonging to a youth ranch for abused or neglected children operated by the Alabama Sheriffs Association. Two people died in separate vehicle, according to Garlock — 29-year-old Cody Fox and his 9-month-old daughter, Ariana, both of Marion County, Tenn.

“He was a great guy and we’re really gonna miss him,” said Aaron Sanders, who worked with Fox at the emergency management agency in Marion County. He said Fox also ran a hot tub business with his father and doted on his daughter. “He just loved her to death and that was his life.”

The deaths occurred as drenching rains from Tropical Depression Claudette pelted northern Alabama and Georgia late Saturday. As much as 12 inches of rain was reported earlier from Claudette along the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

The eight children killed in the van were returning to a youth ranch near Camp Hill, northeast of Montgomery, from a week at the beach in Gulf Shores, youth ranch CEO Michael Smith said.

The van caught fire after the wreck. Candice Gulley, the director of the Tallapoosa County ranch, was pulled from the flames and remained hospitalized in Montgomery in serious but stable condition. “She’s going to survive her physical injuries,” Smith said.

“Words cannot explain what I saw,” Smith said of the accident site, which he visited Saturday. “We love these girls like they’re our own children.”

Also, multiple other people were injured.

The National Transportation Safety Board tweeted that it was sending 10 investigators to the area Sunday to investigate the crash, which photos showed included at least four burned vehicles, including two large trucks. It said the inquiry would focus on vehicle technologies such as forward collision warning systems, fuel tank integrity and occupant survivability.

Meanwhile, a 24-year-old man and a 3-year-old boy were killed when a tree fell on their house just outside the Tuscaloosa city limits Saturday, said Capt. Jack Kennedy of the Tuscaloosa Violent Crimes Unit.

 

 

 

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3xA5YMb