Officials: 8 killed in head-on crash on Mississippi highway

SCOOBA, Miss. -- Eight people -- including four brothers -- were killed before dawn Monday in a head-on collision between a box truck and a passenger van on a rural highway.

All the deceased were passengers in the van, Kemper County Sheriff James Moore told The Associated Press. They did tree work for an agricultural company, Moore said. Most were from Macon, Mississippi, about a 20-minute drive from the crash scene, he said.

"We had rescue workers there who said that out of 25 to 30 years they've been doing this, they haven't had one this bad," Moore said. "The van is pretty tore up."

Macon resident Amy Lugo said one of the victims was her husband, Francisco Lugo, 48. His three brothers, two cousins and an uncle also died in the crash, she said. The van driver, who survived, also was a cousin.

Amy Lugo said she and her husband had been together almost 20 years. Their son turns 2 in August.

"I don't know what I'm going to do without him. I don't know how I'm going to make it without him. He was everything," she said, struggling to speak through her tears.

The Mississippi Highway Patrol received a call just before 3:30 a.m. Monday about the crash on Mississippi Highway 16 east of Scooba, near the Alabama state line, Sgt. Andy West said.

In an interview on the road shoulder near the crash site, Alejandro Estrejo Resendiz said he was driving the van. He had blood on his head from a cut and more blood on his blue jeans, but he said he was otherwise unhurt.

Speaking through a translator, he said the crash happened on a curve near a small bridge as he and the other workers headed for their jobs in Monroeville, Alabama.