A fiery car crash on a rain-slicked highway killed 10 people, including nine children, Saturday afternoon in southern Alabama, where more than a dozen vehicles were wrecked during one of the first storms of this year’s Atlantic hurricane season.
Officials described the crash as one of the worst ever in Butler County, a rural area about 60 miles south of Montgomery with years of experience in battling inclement weather.
Nine people, including eight children between the ages of 4 and 17, were inside, heading home from a beach vacation. The children, who have not been identified, were killed when the van collided with another car and burst into flames, Garlock said. A bystander pulled the driver from the van and she survived.
The accident happened on I-65 northbound at mile marker 138 on Saturday afternoon during storms that swept through the state, according to Garlock. A tropical depression that had been known as Tropical Storm Claudette dumped heavy rain across the Southeast on Saturday after it came ashore in southeastern Louisiana early that morning. 219
