TITUSVILLE, Fla. – Four family members who were killed in a Titusville crash Tuesday after a trip to Kennedy Space Center have been identified by city officials.
Titusville police said Adam P. Stephenson, 30, was driving Maryanne Stephenson, 29; Brian Stephenson, 66; and Sheralyn T. Stephenson, 56, all of Bristol, England, when their Mitsubishi sedan collided with a Ford pickup truck.
Police said the Mitsubishi sedan was traveling west around 6 p.m. on State Road 405 when the GPS the driver was using instructed him to make a U-turn at the intersection of Sisson Road. The sedan turned into the path of an eastbound black Ford F-250 pickup truck.
All four people inside the sedan were pronounced dead at the scene.
The driver of the pick-up truck, James D. Walsh II, 28, of Port St. John, was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
The Stephenson family had just left the Kennedy Space Center and was on the way back to a rental house when the fatal crash happened. Prior to the crash, they had watched SpaceX launch a Falcon 9 rocket with supplies to the International Space Station from Cape Canaveral at 4:30 p.m.
"We have had a massive shock," Maryanne Stephenson's mother Nanette Drake said.
Drake said the family was on vacation and driving back to Orlando after watching the launch.
This crash is still under investigation.
Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex chief operating officer Therrin Protze issued a statement Tuesday after learning the family was in town for a launch.
"All of us here at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex were saddened by the news of the tragic vehicle accident that took the lives of a family from the UK (Monday) night who had been visiting with us earlier in the day," the statement read. "Our hearts go out to their loved ones during this difficult time."
Protze said the center doesn't gave any knowledge of the circumstances related to the crash, but if needed they will cooperate with local authorities.