5 from Taylor University die in accident

UPLAND, Ind. -- For the second time in a week, an Indiana college was in mourning Thursday after a deadly crash killed four students and a university employee.\nNearly 1,500 students and staff packed a Taylor University chapel Thursday, sobbing and singing hymns hours after a tractor-trailer plowed into a university van returning from a trip to Fort Wayne.\nWednesday night's crash was the second deadly accident in a week involving an Indiana college. Five IU music students died April 20 when the plane one of them was piloting crashed in a wooded area near Bloomington, about 100 miles to the southwest.\nTaylor spokesman Jim Garringer said many students and staff were in disbelief that a second tragedy could strike so quickly. Some members of Taylor's music faculty knew the IU victims, he said.\n"People here were keenly aware of that plane crash, and now we have this tragedy," he said. "There's just a lot of raw emotions right now, and some individuals are really hurting."\nStudents at Taylor, an evangelical Christian college about 60 miles northeast of Indianapolis, learned of the van crash on Interstate 69 late Wednesday. They held prayer vigils into the early morning hours, awaiting the names of the victims.\nBy mid-morning Thursday, the campus' main chapel was filled to capacity with mourners. Speakers quoted Scripture, their voices cracking. A table draped in black cloth sat in front of the podium, covered with five lit candles.\nUniversity President Eugene Habecker, whose inauguration was scheduled for Friday, became choked up as he addressed the gathering of most of the campus' 1,850 students.\n"It's like we're still waiting for a phone call that says 'This isn't real,'" he said. "It's like a very bad dream. No matter how we try to explain and rationalize it from every perspective, this is a human tragedy."\nThose killed in the crash worked for Taylor University's dining services and were returning that night from the school's Fort Wayne campus, where they had been preparing for a scholarship banquet that was part of Habecker's inauguration ceremony.\nState police Sgt. Rod Russell said it was unclear why the northbound truck crossed the median into the southbound lanes of I-69 about 10 miles from the main Upland campus, colliding with the van's passenger side. The 8 p.m. crash peeled open the side of the van, ejecting several of the occupants.\nRussell said investigators were examining the tractor-trailer for signs of mechanical failure.\n"We know what caused the crash - he crossed the median - but why he crossed it, that's what we need to discern," he said.\nTroopers tried to interview the truck driver, Robert F. Spencer of Canton, Mich., and four survivors from the van, but many were heavily medicated and unable to provide an account of what happened, Russell said.\nThose killed were students Elizabeth A. Smith, 22, of Mount Zion, Ill., Bradley J. Larson, 22, Elm Grove, Wis.; Whitney E. Cerak, 18, Gaylord, Mich.; and Laurel E. Erb, 20, St. Charles, Ill. Taylor University employee Monica Felver, 53, of Hartford City, Ind., also died in the crash.\nBesides Spencer, the survivors were Taylor University employee and van driver Vickie L. Rhodes, 54, Fairmount, Ind.; Taylor employee Connie Magers, 50, Gas City, Ind.; student Laura J. Vanryn, 22, Caledonia, Mich.; and employee Michele M. Miller, 43, Marion.\nVanryn and Miller were taken by helicopter to Parkview Hospital in Fort Wayne. Vanryn was in critical condition Thursday afternoon, while Miller was in fair condition.\nSpencer was airlifted to Parkview, where he was in fair condition.\nRhodes and Magers were both in stable condition at Marion General Hospital, a spokeswoman said.\nDavid Ridenour, 21, a junior, said Smith was a leader of a group that organizes missionary trips abroad.\n"She was always smiling. She had such a heart for ministries," Ridenour said. "We don't know why this happened or what will come of it, but we trust that God does"