MASSACHUSETTS, USA — The four family members from Massachusetts that were killed in a car crash not far from Disney World on Tuesday were remembered at a vigil in Whitman, Massachusetts, Friday night.
The family was traveling just south of Disney World in Kissimmee, Florida, near Orlando, when their van was hit by a truck at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Troopers said traffic was beginning to slow on Route 429 when a pickup truck driven by a 26-year-old Florida man hit the van from behind, sending it onto its side and into two other cars.
5-year-old Scarlett Smith and her mother Julie Smith, 41, both of Whitman, were killed in the crash, along with Scarlett's grandmother Josephine Fay, 76 of Weymouth.
Jaxon Smith, 11, was flown to the hospital in critical condition and pronounced dead on Wednesday.
Two other children — Shalie Smith, 10, and Skyler Smith, 5 — were not injured in the crash, but were taken to the hospital for monitoring. Skyler is Scarlett's twin.
Driver Shane Smith, 43, and passenger William Fay, 76, were taken to an Orlando hospital in stable condition.
All four children attended Mary Deb Childcare in Whitman growing up.
"They’re a beautiful family, our hearts are broken, and we’ll do everything we can to support them in any way that we can," said Darlene Staples, the director of the childcare center.
Josephine Fay was a professor at Quincy College for almost 20 years. Her colleagues say she was a great professor, but that one of her greatest joys was her job as a grandmother.
"It's horrific, of such magnitude that it's almost unimaginable, to have members of three generations in one family," said Robert Baker, the dean of liberal arts at Quincy College.
"She's part of the spirit of Quincy College," said English professor Steven Dooner.
"I'm sure you'll be hard pressed to go into any daycare center, child care center, on the South Shore, and not find someone who either was running the place or was teaching at the place who, at one point or another, wasn't taught by Jo," Baker added.
The driver of the pickup truck has been identified as 26-year-old Luscas Dos Reis Laurindo.
He is from Kissimmee, Florida, and police said charges against him are pending.