3 Longwood children die in 3-car crash

OSCEOLA COUNTY -- Three children were killed Sunday in a three-vehicle crash on Florida's Turnpike north of Yeehaw Junction, the Florida Highway Patrol said.

Troopers did not release the children's names but said they were members of a Longwood family. FHP Lt. Pat Santangelo said a 1995 Ford minivan carrying a mother, father and the three children was headed north about 5:30 p.m. when the right rear tire blew out. The minivan driver lost control and crossed the median into the path of a southbound 2002 Lincoln Town Car.

The Town Car hit the minivan, which spun and was hit again by a Chevy van, Santangelo said.

Two of the children died at the scene. A third died at a hospital. One person in the Town Car received minor injuries. There were 11 people in the Chevy van, but no one was injured, Santangelo said. According to television reports, no one in the minivan was wearing a seat belt, and the mother was seriously injured.

The turnpike was closed to traffic for several hours, but by 9 p.m. all lanes had been reopened.

Copyright (c) 2004, Orlando Sentinel | From Sentinel staff reports

2 Longwood siblings killed in crash
are remembered as intelligent

March 23, 2004 - Lila Howeedy, 14, was a brilliant student with a future in medicine. It's a future that won't be realized after she and her 4-year-old brother, Kareem, were killed Sunday in a crash on Florida's Turnpike.

Their sister, Ranya, 8, is in critical condition at Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children & Women in Orlando. Their mother, Amany Abou-El-Eila, 46, is in critical condition at Holmes Regional Medical Center in Melbourne.

The children's father, Mostafa Howeedy, 54, suffered minor injuries. Seated in the front passenger seat of the family's minivan, he was the only one wearing a seat belt, Florida Highway Patrol troopers said.

On Monday, neighbors of the family in the Winsor Manor subdivision of Longwood coped with having to tell their own children about the crash.

Many of the children in the area are closest in age to Ranya, who seldom went anywhere without kid brother Kareem tagging along, said next-door neighbor Anthony Hairston.

"We used to kid him [Kareem] about being surrounded by all the women," said Jerry Waller, explaining that most of the kids in the neighborhood, including his two grandchildren, are girls.

Lila was a ninth-grader at Seminole High School in Sanford, where she was in a magnet program for teenagers interested in health careers. With a 4.0 grade-point average, she aspired to be a doctor.

She "would have been an awesome physician," said Nancy Julian, Seminole's assistant principal and director of its Academy of Health Careers. "Teachers really are having a hard time today."

School officials and counselors met with more than 20 of Lila's friends on the first day back from spring break to tell them about the accident.

At Woodlands Elementary School, Principal Suzie Crook described second-grader Ranya as "an outstanding student with an insatiable appetite for learning and a wonderful sense of humor."

Ranya's mother volunteers frequently in the classroom and the school media center and often shares information about her native Egypt, Crook said.

Funeral services for Kareem and Lila will be held just after noon today, during afternoon prayers, at Jama Masjid-Islamic Center of Orlando.

The crash occurred between Yeehaw Junction and the Canoe Creek service plaza when a rear tire blew out on the minivan, which was being driven north by the mother, troopers said. The vehicle crossed the median into the path of a 2002 Lincoln Town Car. The crash sent the minivan spinning. Abou-El-Eila and her three children were ejected.

Seat belts or other restraints are required for drivers and for children younger than 18 in Florida, but the law can be enforced only if the driver is stopped for another infraction.

State Rep. Irv Slosberg, D-Boca Raton, has been pushing a measure that would allow law-enforcement officers to stop drivers for not wearing a seat belt. His proposal was approved earlier this month by the House but remains tied up in the Senate.

In 2002, the most recent year for which statistics are available, 138 children under 18 were killed in car crashes in Florida. Sixty percent of them were not restrained.

Copyright (c) 2004, Orlando Sentinel | By Gary Taylor Sentinel Staff Writer

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