Florida car crash kills four British family members

Four members of a British family have been killed in a car crash while on holiday in Florida, police have said.

The family had just left Nasa’s Kennedy Space Centre when their rented Mitsubishi saloon was hit by a Ford pick-up truck at about 18:00 local time [23:00 GMT] on Monday.

Driver Adam Stephenson, 30, his wife Maryanne Stephenson, 29, and his parents Brian Stephenson, 66, and Sheralyn Stephenson, 56, died in the collision in Titusville. All were from Bristol.

Police said the family were driving back to their rental home when the “heavy-duty pick-up truck violently impacted the passenger side of the small sedan”.

Titusville Police Department deputy chief Todd Hutchinson said: “Our emergency personnel were on the scene within a few minutes. There was nothing they could do; all four were pronounced deceased at the scene.”

A fifth member of the family, a son of Brian and Sheralyn, was also on the holiday but not in the car at the time.

“He lost his brother, his sister-in-law and his mum and dad,” Mr Hutchinson said. “Very, very tragic. He was doing the notifications last night to other family members over in England.

“That was a very tough notification. It was tough for all involved. The job of first responders is to sustain life and to help people at scenes. They were very frustrated because there was nothing they could do for these four that died fairly instantly from the violent collision.”

The family were staying in Davenport, south-east of Orlando – a popular holiday destination among Brits.

Police said the sat-nav they were using showed they were travelling back to their holiday home when they were were re-routed due to another collision and turned into the path of the oncoming truck.

“The GPS had indicated for them to make a U-turn at that intersection which was an illegal U-turn unfortunately and violated the right of way of the pick-up truck,” Mr Hutchinson said.

There was heavy traffic in the area due to a SpaceX rocket launch at Cape Canaveral. It is not clear whether the Stephenson family had been to watch the launch before the crash that killed them..

The 28-year-old driver of the pick-up truck was taken to hospital with “non life-threatening injuries”, police said.

A UK Foreign Office spokesman said: “We are supporting the family of four British people who have died in Florida. Our thoughts are with them at this deeply difficult time.”