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Fatal Van Accident Leaves Driver, Church At Odds

Tampa Tribune/September 21, 2003
By Michelle Bearden and Michael Fechter

The blue van swerved once, then again, before turning a horrifying pair of somersaults down the embankment along Florida's Turnpike near Fort Pierce.

Small bodies flew from the windows as the van rolled from rooftop to tires, rooftop to tires.

The 1997 seven-passenger Dodge came to rest on its right side. Pinned beneath was 14-year-old Solomon Bostick of Tampa. The Williams Middle School student died; eight other children were injured.

There, certainties about that June 8 accident seem to end. The answers to questions about how it happened, why the children were traveling, even who owned the van are lost in a fog of contradictory accounts, accusations and denials. Among them: