BOWLING GREEN, Ky., March 26 (UPI) -- A tractor-trailer and a passenger van crashed head-on on Interstate 65 in southwestern Kentucky Friday, killing 11 people, state police said.
The Louisville Courier-Journal reported the tractor-trailer loaded with brake drums crossed the median of I-65, colliding head-on with a van carrying 12 people, mostly in one family, on their way to a wedding in Iowa.
Kentucky State Police told the newspaper that 10 people in the van, including one infant, and the truck driver were killed.
A team from the National Transportation Safety Board was dispatched to investigate the crash.
There were at least two survivors from the van, the newspaper said -- children 4 and 5 years old. Both were in child seats, and were treated at a local hospital and released.
The Courier-Journal said 11 of the people in the van were Mennonites from Marrowbone, a small community west of Burkesville, Cumberland County.
The newspaper said Cumberland Sheriff James Pruitt identified the victims as John and Sadie Esh; their daughters Rose, Anna and Rachel; their son and daughter-in-law Leroy and Naomi Esh; Leroy and Naomi's adopted 2-month old son Jalen. Two other victims in the van were Joel Gingerich, Rachel's boyfriend, and Ashley Meshel Kramer, an Esh family friend from Franklin.
The sheriff said Johnny and Josiah Esh, adopted sons of Leroy and Naomi, survived the crash, the Courier-Journal reported.
