PINE MOUNTAIN - Seven young people remained hospitalized Saturday after their church van suffered a blown tire and spun out of control near Columbus, killing a 12-year-old Illinois boy. <br>
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The accident Friday evening sent a dozen people to hospitals in Columbus and LaGrange as the group was returning to a church convention from a day trip to an Atlanta water park. <br>
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``He remembers hearing the tire pop and the tire wobbling and then the van started flipping,'' said Marilyn Gandy, the mother of 14-year-old Charles Gandy, who was in stable condition Saturday at a LaGrange hospital. <br>
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The teen suffered fractured ribs, head injuries and a broken hand that will require surgery next week, she said. <br>
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Eight people were sent to The Medical Center in Columbus, including Anthony Williams, of Urbana, Ill. He was pronounced dead from blunt force trauma. <br>
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The hospital classified three patients Saturday as ``unsatisfactory,'' although Medical Center spokeswoman Marion Scott declined to specify what that means. Three others were considered ``satisfactory,'' she said. One was released Friday night. <br>
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About six van loads from the youth conference at Bread of Life Christian Center were returning to Columbus from Whitewater water park in Marietta. <br>
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The conference, which ended Saturday, had youth from churches in Connecticut, Florida, Georgia and Illinois, Marilyn Gandy said. <br>
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The tire failure caused the fully-loaded 15-passenger van to skid and overturn in the median. No other vehicles were involved. <br>
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Investigators believe the incident was an accident, although they are conducting a routine reconstruction of the events, said Jeffrey Boyt, a Georgia State Patrol dispatcher. <br>
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Most of the injured were from the Bread of Life Church in Champaign, Ill. The others were from Columbus. <br>
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The driver, an unidentified man from Illinois, suffered only minor injuries. The other victims also were not identified.
