Pastor Bo Sosa’s voice was choked with emotion as he spoke about the young men and women traveling from his church to a conference in Portland, Ore., who survived a terrible van wreck near Baker City, Ore.
“They are beat up real bad,” said Sosa, senior pastor of the New Life Worship Center in Federal Heights. “Their hearts are beat up, too.”
Sixteen ministers-in-training were in a van headed west on Interstate 84 at 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 traveled to Baker City Friday morning, where he went to the home of Rev. Jon Privett of the Baker City Church of the Nazarene.
Thursday night, Privett and members of the Baker City community including a number of nurses cared for seven of the college-age survivors at Privett’s home.
“They are banged up and bruised. There are broken bones, stitches, broken backs,” said Sosa of those at Privett’s house. “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.”
After viewing the remains of the van, Sosa said it was a miracle any one survived.
“It was worse than I thought,” he said. “The van is like a ball of metal.”
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.
Sosa said the people in the van, who were on their way to Portland, Ore. 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.”
Sosa and the seven from Baker City are driving back to Boise today. They will go to Saint Alphonsus hospital in Boise where five of the ministers-in-training are hospitalized in critical or serious condition. Sosa met with those at Saint Alphonsus on Thursday.
He said the seven are eager to see their friends in Boise. It will probably be two days before any of the group fly back to Denver, he added.
Sosa said the church members in Oregon were overwhelmed when they heard that the Federal Heights church was packed Thursday night with people praying for their well-being.
“Tell everybody, “Thank you!” said Sosa.
Privett said Baker City businesses had chipped in with donations of food and clothing for the injured.
Earlier today, the Oregon State Police released the names of the 16 people involved in a church van crash that killed two ministers-in-training.
The state patrol’s Hastings identified the driver as Nicole Elaine Byrd, 25, of Federal Heights, who was released from St. Elizabeth Health Services hospital in Baker City this morning. She was wearing a seat belt during the crash.
Hastings said Byrd was interviewed by the Oregon State Patrol this morning.
According to Hastings, five passengers remain in serious or critical condition at Saint Alphonsus hospital in Boise, Idaho.
They are Aaron Stearling Werntz, 19, of Freeport, Ill. and Phillip Joel Harris, 24, Attalla, Ala., who 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.
Hastings said two passengers were transported to Grande Ronde Hospital in La Grande, Oregon, with non-life threatening injuries. They are Lavan Ahmad Sayed, 24, of Louisville, and Ashley Wenk, 18, whose hometown is unknown.
Six other passengers were taken to St. Elizabeth Health Services hospital in Baker City, where they were treated and released, and then went to Privett’s home.
They 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; and Javaar Zakori Howard, 18, of Denver.
Hastings said many people responded to the crash, including passersby and first responders from Baker City, La Grande, Baker Rural and Keating, Ore.
Hastings said the investigation of the crash could last several weeks.
Once the investigation is concluded, the state patrol will meet with the local district attorney to “see if any enforcement action” will be brought, Hastings said.
Last night, the pews at the New Life Worship Center filled for a 7 p.m. vigil for the crash victims.
“They were good, good, good people — great people,” said Tyler Heinz, who ministers the Rocky Mountain Masters Commission, the ministerial training program that the victims were part of.
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com
