4 children, 1 adult killed in interstate crash

GRAND RIDGE, Fla. (AP) – Four children and one adult from Georgia were killed in an Interstate 10 crash in the Florida Panhandle, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.

Sabrina Turk, 32, was driving east in a Honda Civic on Sunday afternoon when the vehicle crossed the center line for an unknown reason and skidded into the oncoming lanes, according to a crash report.

A pickup hit the car’s passenger side, ejecting Turk’s boyfriend, 43-year-old Lysander Smith, from the passenger seat and her four children, ages 6, 7, 9 and 11, from the backseat, FHP spokesman James Johnson said. Turk was critically injured. All the passengers were killed. No one in the car was wearing a seat belt, the report said. They were all from Winder, Georgia.

Johnson said Turk remained in critical but stable condition at a Tallahassee hospital Monday, and troopers hadn’t been able to speak to her about the crash. There was no indication of drug or alcohol use, but Turk didn’t have a valid driver license, Johnson said.

Johnson said the children were not properly restrained in the back seat of the small car, but he pointed out that the extent of the damage to the car was so great that seat belts or car seats likely wouldn’t have saved the children.

The pickup overturned but came to rest upright, the crash report said. The driver and two of his passengers suffered minor injuries, and a third passenger was seriously injured, Troopers reported. All four occupants had been wearing seat belts.