The Florida Highway Patrol said Friday the drivers are to blame for the deadly I-75 pileup in January that killed five members of a Cobb County family returning from a church trip.
But a pastor of the Brazilian congregation devastated by the crash told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the interstate should not have been open because the heavy fog and smoke-filled skies made visibility impossible.
"There's no way in the world if they knew the road was dangerous that they would attempt to drive," Bobby Curtis, pastor of the Restoration Church in Marietta, said Friday.
It was church that led more than a dozen members of the congregation to a three-day conference in Orlando the final weekend in January. The conference served as a reunion for Brazilian churches and in the end, the final days a family would ever have together again.
Pastor Jose Carmo, his wife, Adriana, and the couple's two teenage daughters made the trip together, along with Jose Carmo's brother and girlfriend. And because the pastor had wanted to be home to lead the Sunday morning church service, the two vans had departed in the wee hours.
The group was traveling northbound on I-75 near Gainesville, Fla., when visibility was reduced to almost nothing, making it nearly impossible to see anything outside, survivors have said.
Florida deputies had earlier closed the same stretch of interstate, but it was re-open when the Carmos approached. In an instant, a string of crashes on both sides of the interstate killed 11 people and injured 46 others.
"If the roads are dangerous, I expect someone to tell us," Curtis said Friday.
Lidiane Carmo, 15, was the only one in her immediate family to survive. Her sister, Leticia, her parents, uncle Edson Carmo and his girlfriend, Rosa Silva, all died. Lidiane Carmo spent weeks in a Florida hospital recovering from extensive injuries and later returned to Cobb County to live with an aunt and uncle.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott ordered the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to review the crashes to determine how or if they could have been prevented, and how the state could avoid a future tragedy.
The FDLE found no criminal wrongdoing, but said state troopers erred in re-opening a stretch of the interstate clouded with smoke and fog when the investigation's results were released April 26. For church members, the findings coincided with what they already believed: The interstate should not have been open.
The Florida Highway Patrol released its response to the FDLE report on Friday, stating that the patrol is enhancing policies and training to keep roadways safe. Furthermore, the patrol stands by its troopers' decision to re-open I-75.
"Even if each of the recommendations made by the FDLE in its incident review were to have been present or occurred that night, it is probable the same decision would have been reached," the FHP said in its response. "Also, no amount of planning or policy will take the place of driver reaction to low visibility and unpredictable conditions."
For the survivors of the small Cobb County church, there are no easy answers on why the crashes happened, Curtis said. But bonds between church members have strengthened through grief.
Lidiane Carmo is expected to return to school Monday for the first time since the crash.
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