Five children and two adults were killed when a semi truck rammed into a Pentecostal church’s van near Gainesville, Florida, back in January. Now, one of the survivors is speaking out.
Van driver Ali Laborde, who was 31 weeks pregnant at the time of the crash, says the van was on its way to Disney World when the crash happened.
“I remember closing my eyes and thinking, This is it. We’re gonna die,” she says, according to CBS. “I kept telling myself, Everyone’s OK. They’re just hurt. I didn’t realize the severity. I didn’t realize that there were five children there that weren’t alive.”
Among those five children was Laborde’s 13-year-old daughter, Cara. The children’s ages ranged from 9 to 14 years old.
Miraculously, Laborde gave birth to a healthy baby girl several weeks after the incident. Laborde and her husband named their precious girl Cambrie, which means “angel.”
New chilling footage of the crash shows the Eagle Express 18-wheeler barreling across the median of I-75 and smashing the church van to pieces before striking another semi-truck.
Laborde and other survivors have filed lawsuits against Eagle Express for negligence and wrongful death.
