CHEROKEE COUNTY, Al. - A Rome family is grieving after a devastating ATV crash in Cherokee County, Alabama, that killed two parents and left seven children hospitalized.
What they're saying:
Family members identified one of the victims as 34-year-old Marcus Ragland, a father of 10. They also said his girlfriend, the mother of two of his children, also died from her injuries.
Audrey Dunn, who has two children with Ragland and is pregnant with another, said he had picked up her 1-year-old and 5-year-old for the holiday weekend.
"I don't even know how to feel," Dunn said.
She told FOX 5 she learned about the accident in the worst possible way.
"I get on Facebook and that's when I see that he had passed," Dunn said. "And I couldn't find my kids, because they were in the accident."
The backstory:
The Cherokee County Alabama Emergency Management Agency said nine people were riding together on a side-by-side ATV at Indian Mountain ATV Park when it collided with another vehicle. The ATV then overturned and crashed into a tree.
Deputies said the driver died at the scene. Ragland's family identified him as the driver. Emergency crews called in four helicopters to fly the woman passenger and three of the children to a hospital in Birmingham. Four others were rushed by ambulance to Atrium Health Floyd in Rome.
What they're saying:
Family members said Ragland's girlfriend later died at the hospital. All seven children survived. Four have since been discharged from the hospital, including Dunn's two children.
"My 1-year-old is limping, and his face is scratched up pretty bad, [my other son] has a gash on the top of his head, but he's okay, so thank God the babies are okay," Dunn said.
Three other children remain in the hospital in Birmingham, according to the family.
Cherokee County, AL officials say none of the passengers were wearing seat belts when the crash happened. Indian Mountain ATV Park rules state that "everyone must wear their seat belt/safety harness at all times while in the vehicle."
We reached out to the park to ask about how they enforce these rules, but they haven't responded yet.