After seeing the remains of a church van that rolled in icy conditions on an Oregon highway early Thursday morning, Pastor Bo Sosa said it was a miracle any of the ministers-in-training from his church survived the crash.
“It was worse than I thought,” said Sosa, senior pastor at New Life Worship Center in Federal Heights. “The van is like a ball of metal.”
Sixteen college-age men and women from the church were in a van headed west on Interstate 84 near Baker City, Ore., about 5:20 a.m. Thursday. The road conditions were icy, and the van went off the highway and rolled for about 50 yards before coming to rest on its roof.
Oregon State Patrol Lt. Gregg Hastings said 13 of the 16 people in the 2002 Ford van were ejected.
Joshua John Pischura, 20, of Geneva, Ohio, and Taune Nicole Winter Pepper, 23, from Deer Trail were killed.
Sosa’s voice was choked with emotion as he spoke about the young men and women who survived the wreck.
“They are beat up real bad,” said Sosa, reached by phone in Baker City, where he was visiting the injured. “Their hearts are beat up too.”
Seven of the survivors were treated at St. Elizabeth Health Services hospital and then released. They stayed Thursday night at the home of the Rev. Jon Privett of the Baker City Church of the Nazarene, where they were cared for by members of the community, including a number of nurses.
Those survivors are Sarah Beth Devires, 18, of Golden; Marketa Larie Smith, 25, hometown unknown; Brett James Iserman, 20, of Dakota, Ill.; Katherine Elizabeth Coppock, 19, of Cave Creek, Ariz.; Christian Wence, 19, of Ault; Javaar Zakori Howard, 18, of Denver; and the driver, Nicole Elaine Byrd, 25, of Federal Heights.
“They are banged up and bruised. There are broken bones, stitches, broken backs,” Sosa said. “I tried to give them the biggest, gentle hugs I could. I said, ‘We are going to make it through this.’ We held each other and prayed.”
Sosa said an Oregon state trooper who came on the scene after the accident said he “had never seen a scene like it,” with bodies all over the road.
Five of the student ministers are hospitalized in critical or serious condition at Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise, Idaho. Aaron Stearling Werntz, 19, of Freeport, Ill., and Phillip Joel Harris, 24, of Attalla, Ala., are in critical condition.
Christine Sandra Aki, 18, of Golden; Katherine Elizabeth Darlene Pischura, 18, of Geneva, Ohio; and William Chris Rodgers, 22, of Lakewood are in serious condition, hospital spokeswoman Jennifer Krajnik said.
State trooper Hastings said two passengers were transported to Grande Ronde Hospital in La Grande, Ore., with non-life-threatening injuries. They are Lavan Ahmad Sayed, 24, of Louisville, and Ashley Wenk, 18, hometown unknown.
Sosa said the people in the van, who were on their way to Portland to raise money for community-service programs, had stopped in Baker City for a few minutes and then left.
He said the occupants were just settling back into the van — “getting comfortable, pulling blankets over themselves” — when the van went out of control.
“I’ve been the senior pastor for 12 years, in the church for 30 years, and this is the hardest thing,” Sosa said. “Never in my life have I had to face something like this.”
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com
