Entire family killed by 'drunk driver' going wrong way on motorway
'You don’t expect a whole family to get wiped out. You think to yourself ‘What’s the worst case scenario?’ and that’s it,' relative says
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Your support makes all the difference.An entire family was killed by a suspected drunk driver travelling the wrong way down a motorway.
Five members of the same family died after a pickup truck hit their SUV, causing it to burst into flames on Interstate 75 in Kentucky at about 2.30am on Sunday.
The driver of the truck, which was travelling southbound in the northbound lanes, also died in the collision, Lexington Police said.
The family, from Northville, Michigan, was returning home from a holiday in Florida, the Fayette County coroner’s office said.
Witness Kenneth DeGraaf told WLEX-TV he managed to dodge the truck just moments before the fatal crash.
“I thought I was seeing something, honestly,” he said.
“He was in the centre lane. I was in the centre lane. I had to merge out of the way at the last second to get to the right lane. I mean, he was flying. Absolutely flying.”
The coroner identified the family members as lawyer Issam Abbas, 42, and doctor Rima Abbas, 38, along with their son Ali Abbas, 14, and daughters Isabella Abbas, 13, and Giselle Abbas, seven.
The driver of the white pickup truck was identified as 41-year-old Joey Lee Bailey of Georgetown.
The coroner’s statement said authorities believed Bailey was driving under the influence of alcohol and that toxicology tests were planned.
The interstate was shut for hours to allow for an accident investigation to take place.
According to the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn, Michigan, funeral services for the family will take place at the centre on Tuesday.
Local media in Michigan reported that the death of the family had left relatives and friends devastated.
Habib Abbas, from Dearborn, who identified himself as a cousin of the father, told The Detroit News that when he first heard about the crash he did not believe it and went about his day.
“I thought it was a rumour or something and then saw it again and called her sister,” he said.
“She and the family are even more in denial.”
He added that Issam Abbas was a lawyer and that Rima Abbas was a doctor and devoted mother to their children.
He said the extended family was close and that his cousin led a “beautiful life”.
“You don’t expect a whole family to get wiped out,” he said. “You think to yourself ‘What’s the worst case scenario?’ and that’s it.”
The crash was the second in three days involving multiple deaths on Interstate 75, a bustling north-south corridor crossing the nation’s midsection from South Florida to the US border with Canada.
An accident on Thursday involving two tractor-trailers killed seven people, including five children on a trip to Walt Disney World in a church van from Louisiana.
The truck drivers were also killed and at least eight others injured in the crash on a relatively flat stretch of interstate near Gainesville, in Florida.
Additional reporting by Associated Press
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