FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A 15-year-old boy is dead following a crash on U.S. 27 Tuesday afternoon that left six other children and two adults injured.
Florida Highway Patrol Lt. Yanko Reyes said the boy was pronounced dead when he arrived at Broward Health Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale.
Earlier information from the Broward Sheriff’s Office and Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue said the crash involved a minivan and a tractor trailer. FHP has since determined it was a black Nissan sedan rather than a minivan.
Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue Battalion Chief Michael Kane said the two adults and seven children in the car were heading north on U.S. 27 shortly before 3 p.m. when the trailer hit the car from behind at mile marker 47.7, the borderline between Broward and Palm Beach County.
The Nissan and tractor trailer were both riding in the right lane when the trailer struck the sedan. After the crash, the sedan rotated counter-clockwise and stopped facing oncoming traffic in the left lane, a news release from FHP said. The trailer stopped on the right shoulder of the road.
The car had “extensive damage” to its rear, fire rescue officials said in a news release Tuesday evening, with the impact of the crash smashing the rear of the car about 12 to 18 inches into the backseat.
Photos of the car provided by Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue showed the crash rendered the rear-end of the car unrecognizable and smashed the windshield.
Three of the children were in critical condition at the hospital, fire rescue officials said.
The driver of the sedan was a 31-year-old woman from Opa-locka, according to an FHP news release. The passengers were another 31-year-old woman from Miami, a 7-year-old boy, a 3-year-old boy, a 5-year-old girl, a 14-year-old girl, the 15-year-old boy who died and two girls whose ages were not released.
All of the children were from Opa-locka and Miami, according to the release. Four people — the Nissan driver, 31-year-old woman, 5-year-old girl and another girl — were listed as having serious injuries. The four others who survived had minor injuries.
The driver of the tractor trailer, a 33-year-old man from Oakland Park, had minor injuries.
The trailer driver was not hospitalized, Kane said.
The release says it is not known whether any of the people in the Nissan were wearing seat belts.
The relationship between the children and adults in the car was not immediately known Tuesday afternoon.
U.S. 27 was closed in both directions for more than an hour. The south side reopened after 4 p.m., FHP said in a tweet, and the north side reopened about 8 p.m.
FHP will handle the crash investigation.
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