5 family members killed, 11 injured

INDIANAPOLIS – A tire blowout may have caused a van carrying passengers from an Amish community to flip over on a highway, killing three children and two adults, police said Monday. Eleven others were injured in the crash.\nPolice said no other vehicles were involved Sunday when the southbound van veered out of control on Interstate 69, entered a grassy median and overturned, coming to rest in the northbound lanes near Muncie. The roof of the vehicle was shorn away.\nWitnesses saw the rear left tire on the van blow out before the crash, and police said in a statement that a preliminary investigation of the tires confirmed those observations.\nIt was not clear at first how many people had been riding in the van, as survivors gave conflicting counts of 15, 16 or 17 passengers, Indiana State Police Sgt. Rod Russell said. Police and other rescuers searched for more injured people until it was clear all people in the van were accounted for at the crash site about 50 miles northeast of Indianapolis.\n“It’s controlled chaos, is what it is, when you have a situation like this with ejections and multiple victims,” Russell said.\nThe victims were from Amish communities in Indiana, police said. Troopers believed that the van may have been taking people home after a church function.\nState police released the names of the five Rockville family members killed in the accident: father and driver Melvin Fisher, 39; mother Savilla Fisher, whose age was not known; son Ruben, 16; son Christian, 11; and one-year-old son Eli.\nThe accident injured 11 other van passengers, including four more children from the Fisher family.\nSteve Lengacher told WISH-TV in Indianapolis it was important to remember his family.\n“All we can believe is that the Lord had his hand on it and that his ways are not our ways,” he said. “I would not choose this way, but his ways are as far above ours as the heavens are from the earth.”\nSeven members of his family from New Haven were injured.\nTroopers believe the Lengacher family was returning the Fisher family across the state to western Indiana after a church function near Fort Wayne.\nAmish people generally shun modern conveniences and sometimes enlist non-Amish as drivers. But police say Melvin Fisher was driving the van.\nTraffic in both directions was stopped as authorities used the highway to land medical helicopters. All lanes opened hours later.\nSusie Ingras saw the crash and went to help the victims.\n“We got up there and we had three bodies that were just right by us,” she said. “It’s just heartbreaking, especially them being so young.”\nIn April, four Amish riding in a pickup were among eight people killed in a crash on the Indiana Toll Road.