Four Family Members Killed in Florida Crash

The family members were on their way to Fort Myers to see the house where a relative had recently moved.

Hurricanes kept forcing them to put off the trip, but on Sunday, Ramona Sobalvarro, 49, of Miami, and her sister, Tomasa I. Corea, 34, of Hialeah, were determined to go.

With them were Sobalvarro's son, Juan V. Gonzalez, 20, and Corea's young son Sergio Castillo Jr., 6.

The accident happened about 7:10 a.m. at Mile Marker 60, about 10 miles west of the Broward County line, when a 2004 Ford SUV also heading west on I-75 crashed into the family's 2004 Chevrolet SUV.

The Chevy veered out of control, striking an emergency call box and rolling over.

Gonzalez and his aunt, Corea, were ejected and killed.

The Chevy continued to tumble, ripping through a chain-link fence and plunging into a canal.

The two people still in the Chevy, Sergio and his aunt, Sobalvarro, who was the driver, were later found dead in the vehicle.

It was not clear if Sergio and Sobalvarro were killed when the SUV overturned or if they died in the canal, said FHP Lt. John Donovan.

WAITING FOR ARRIVAL

In Fort Myers, Sobalvarro's daughter, Adriana Gonzalez, 21, was anticipating her family's arrival.

She prepared enough eggs, sausages and coffee for everyone.

''I woke up to make her coffee,'' Gonzalez said of her mother. ``She loved my coffee.''

As the morning wore on, the food became cold.

About 4 p.m., Gonzalez got word that her mother, brother, aunt and cousin had been killed.

''All four of them are gone,'' Gonzalez said before breaking into loud sobs.

Family members were devastated by their loss, but said the accident could have claimed even more lives.

Corea's 11-year-old daughter, as well as a third sister, were supposed to make the trip to Fort Myers in the SUV.

The little girl overslept, and the sister had to work, family members said.

The Ford SUV that crashed into the Chevy skidded out of control, careening across both westbound lanes of I-75, tumbling through the grassy median, and crossing the eastbound lanes.

Its momentum was stopped when it crashed into a chain-link fence, overturned and caught fire.

FOUR OTHERS OK

All four of the Ford's occupants were able to crawl out of the upside-down vehicle relatively unscathed, Donovan said.

The driver of the Ford SUV, Rolandson Ceinor, 24, of Lauderdale Lakes, suffered minor injuries, as did his three passengers: Kevin Sherwin Smith, 26, of Coral Springs; Stanley Bien-Aime, 23, of Miramar; and Damian Andrew Collie, 24, of Margate.

Ceinor was charged with careless driving.

Of the eight people involved in the crash, Corea was the only one not wearing a seat belt, according to FHP.