Three Apopka residents are dead and nine other family members were injured after a rollover crash in Martin County.
Florida Highway Patrol troopers said a Ford Expedition carrying 12 people, including seven children, was northbound on Florida's Turnpike around 4:45 p.m. Saturday when a left rear tire tread separated.
Oduver Miranda, 25, lost control of the SUV, traveled onto the shoulder and overturned.
Several passengers, including 38-year-old Uriel Miranda, were ejected. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Two-year-old Yaretsi Miranda was taken to Tradition Medical Center in Port St. Lucie and then transferred St. Mary's Medical Center in West Palm Beach, where she was pronounced dead.
Yordi Miranda, 8, was pronounced dead at 1:20 p.m. Sunday at St. Mary's Medical Center, troopers said.
Many of the injured were originally taken to Traditional and Lawnwood Regional Medical Center in Fort Pierce, but then transferred to St. Mary's with injuries ranging from minor to critical.
As of 4:30 p.m. Sunday, all of the others who were hurt in the crash were listed in stable or critical-but-stable condition. Two family members have been released from the hospital.
The northbound lanes of the Turnpike were closed for several hours.
"It's going to be different," said Jessica Garcia, who lives just two doors down from the Miranda family in an Apopka neighborhood. "The kids were always running around everybody's yard. They were good kids."
Neighbors said the family traveled to South Florida on Saturday to get passports from the Guatemalan consulate. The family was on its way back to Apopka at the time of the crash, neighbors said.
An investigator with the Florida Highway Patrol said at least six people inside the Ford Expedition weren't restrained when the tire tread separated.
According to neighbors, Yordi Miranda was battling cancer.
"The kids around here are crying because they used to always go over there and play," Garcia said.
The cause of the crash remains under investigation.