Alabama, rear-end collision during a storm: 10 children and two adults dead

WASHINGTON. Twelve people, including ten minors, died in Alabama in accidents related to heavy rains triggered by tropical storm Claudette. In a crash involving 15 vehicles on an interstate near the city of Greenville, eight boys between the ages of 4 and 17 were killed while traveling in a van belonging to a shelter for abandoned or abused children. A man and his nine-month-old daughter who were on board an SUV also died in the collision. The cause of the accident are the large quantities of water poured onto the road by the heavy rainfall. Aquaplaning caused drivers to lose control of the vehicles, which collided with each other. In the city of Tuscaloosa, local press reports, a tree then fell on a house killing a 24-year-old man and a 3-year-old boy who were inside.