Church Van Carrying 12 Crashes in Nebraska; 1 Dead
An investigation is now underway after a deadly crash in Nebraska involving a National Evangelization Teams Ministries van filled with 12 young members on Monday night.
NET Ministries, according to a summary on the organization's Facebook page, is an international youth ministry program where young adults spend nine months of their lives evangelizing to high school and middle school youth. The ministry says it challenges young Catholics to love Christ and embrace the life of the Church.
Ministries van, which was towing a trailer at 8:02 P.M. on Monday night. The accident took place north of Colon on Highway 109 just south of County Road R.
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The driver of the van, Theresa M. Nguyen, 22, from Louisiana, was attempting to make a U-turn to travel south on Highway 109 when a car traveling south, collided into it. The driver, Walter Anderson, 88, of Wahoo was pronounced dead at the scene. His passenger, Peggy Shapnek, 63, also from Wahoo was transported to Bryan Medical Center West in Lincoln.
Ten of the people who were traveling in the church van were either transported to the Fremont Area Medical Center or Saunders County Medical Center in six ambulances from Cedar Bluffs, Colon, Fremont ALS or Wahoo fire departments.
The Christian Post reached out to the Minnesota-based NET Ministries for comment Tuesday but no one from the organization was available for comment.
But CP was able to reach Captain Steve Malina of the Saunders County Sheriff's Office, who said officials from the ministry had reached out to them but they were still in the process of piecing together what happened.
"As of right now where they (church group) were heading to is still under investigation. It is my understanding that they were staying at a local place in Colon. It sounds like it was a family dwelling. The national organization has reached out to us," Malina said.
"We're just still trying to help the families and the victims that we have here," he said.
All the persons traveling in the church van were over the age of 18 according to the police.
Sheriff Kevin Stukenholtz told 1011Now: "They were planning on spending the evening in Colon."
