WASHINGTON 鈥� Police say a pregnant woman lost her unborn child after a聽fiery crash involving a church van Sunday in Prince George鈥檚 County, Maryland.
One child and three adults, including the driver of the pickup truck, were killed Sunday. Police said聽Monday a pregnant聽woman in the van had to undergo emergency surgery and lost聽her unborn child. The woman survived.聽It is not yet clear how far along the woman was in her pregnancy.
Six children and eight adults were injured, according to聽Prince George鈥檚 County Fire and Rescue spokesman Mark Brady.聽Of those injured, four children and four adults were in critical condition.
“In my 40 years in the聽fire service, it’s probably one of the most horrific accident scenes聽we’ve had to deal with in a very long time,” Brady said.
The incident happened in Hyattsville, at 21st Place and Chillum Road around 5 p.m. Sunday.
An eyewitness聽said a white pickup truck traveling west on Chillum Road struck a Cadillac, causing the truck’s tire to catch fire.聽Witnesses described seeing the truck speed away from the crash.
Despite the flaming tire, the pickup truck careened down the road and then struck the church van head-on. Witnesses said that the van caught fire after the crash, but Brady tells the Associated Press that聽“the fire actually involved the pickup truck” and not the van.
The van is from a Riverdale church,聽Iglesia Ministerio de Dios Unido, says聽Scott Peterson, a spokesman for Prince George鈥檚 County Executive Rushern Baker.聽A church co-pastor says the people in a van were headed from Washington to an evening service in the suburbs.
“People were running down聽聽the street pulling people out of the blue van,” said聽Steve Ramsey, who lives near the site of the crash.聽“There were a lot of children in the van.”
Brady聽said the adults in the van were mostly in their 20s and 30s and that the children ranged from 4 to 10 years old.
Sherrie Johnson with Prince George’s County Public Schools says one child, who is in critical condition, is a third-grader at Ridgecrest Elementary School in Hyattsville. The other hospitalized student attends Thomas Stone Elementary School in Mount Rainier. She did not know the second child鈥檚 condition or grade.
Emergency crews聽from neighboring jurisdictions assisted in the response.
Brady said聽the crash was so bad that firefighters went through a “critical incident” debriefing afterward. “They were met with by counselors to make sure everyone was OK聽after dealing with an incident involving so many people, so many injuries and fatalities,” he said.
Donald Huff, who lives on the street where the accident took place, said he heard “a loud boom, just like a bomb,” and then saw the flames.
“The fire just got bigger and bigger,” he told The Associated Press by phone.
He said a couple of people ran out on the street with kitchen fire extinguishers “to try to get as close as they could, but it was a little too much.”
He said that when the fire department arrived and brought the blaze under control, he could see them pulling bodies from the van afterward. White smoke billowed from the scene afterward.
Brady said the injured were divided up among several hospitals in the area because of the number of people hurt.
Peterson says聽the 鈥渧ery young鈥� Iglesia Ministerio de Dios Unido church has a small congregation, and most of the members are Latino. He says the county鈥檚 Latino liaison is assisting.
Also, he says the Mexican embassy already has contacted the county to find out if any of the people involved are Mexican nationals.
海角精品黑料’s Dick Uliano and The Associated Press contributed to this report
