HANNIBAL, Mo. (ABP) — Fourteen students and a faculty sponsor from Baptist-affiliated Hannibal-LaGrange College were injured May 16 in a vehicle accident while on a mission trip in Haiti.
The students — nine women and five men — were riding in the back of an open-air truck with 15 Haitians down a mountain near Port-au-Prince when the vehicle's brakes failed. The driver managed to steer the vehicle into an embankment only a few feet away from the edge of a cliff.
Several students were ejected from the vehicle, while others were jostled from side to side in the back of the truck. Injuries ranged from bruises, cuts and "road-rash" abrasions to broken bones and concussions.
The most serious injuries were to Christina Brennemann, an assistant professor of communication arts at the Hannibal, Mo.-based school and the faculty sponsor for the eight-day mission trip, which was scheduled to end May 17. As of May 19 she remained in serious condition in the intensive-care unit of a Miami hospital, according to a school press release.
The trip, sponsored by Blessing Hearts International, a Haitian missions organization led by friends of Brennemann, was originally scheduled for spring break but rescheduled for May after a Jan. 12 earthquake devastated the area. The students were there to help with earthquake relief and to work with an orphanage and school.
Most of the injured were treated by a University of Miami medical team stationed at the Port-au-Prince airport. Four were airlifted to Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami. Ten students boarded their original flights back to the United States and were transported to a St. Louis hospital on arrival. Nine were treated and released while one was admitted for testing and observation.
One nursing student who graduated only days before the trip, despite suffering a head injury of his own, began triage procedures and was credited with saving lives. Had the truck not crashed, it likely would have gone over the cliff, killing all 30 passengers.
"The Lord was with them and spared them any more serious injuries," college President Woodrow Burt told the Quincy (Ill.) Herald-Whig.
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Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.