Church van collides with tractor-trailer on 92E

Over half a dozen people had to be transported to the hospital following a two-vehicle wreck Wednesday afternoon on Ky. 92E.

A church van with a driver and 13 passengers on board collided with a tractor trailer hauling coal on Ky. 92E in the second horse shoe curve just west of the first Ky. 904 entrance shortly before 3 p.m.

Whitley County Emergency Management Director Danny Moses said that the van from Belmont Baptist Church in Gainsville, Ga. was hit by a tractor trailer in the curve when the trailer of the semi hit the front left portion of the van pinning the driver inside.

Moses said that most of the passengers in the van were children or youths.

"I think we had every ambulance in Whitley County up here," he noted.

Patterson Creek Volunteer Fire Department and Williamsburg Fire Department had to extricate the driver from the van, and he was freed about 4:45 p.m. The driver of the semi apparently wasn’t injured.

Moses said that he’s not sure about the extent of those injured, but that there were no fatalities at the scene. Whitley County EMS transported over a half a dozen people.

Kentucky Vehicle Enforcement is investigating the crash. The Whitley County Sheriff’s Department and the Williamsburg Police
Department also assisted at the scene.

Moses said that the church group in the van was apparently part of a larger group visiting, but he said he didn’t know what they were here for. WKYT reported that the students involved in the wreck were junior high and high school age, and had just left Whitley East Elementary School where they were doing work with students.