5 still in ICU following deadly Oregon van crash

BAKER CITY, Ore. - Five people still remain in intensive care after a van from a Colorado church crashed in Oregon early Thursday morning killing two of the 16 people inside.

Oregon State Police say 13 of the people in the van were ejected when it rolled around 5:20 a.m. on Interstate 84, near Baker City, Ore. The town is in the eastern part of the state, not far from the Idaho border.

Two passengers, 20-year-old Joshua John Pischura from Geneva, Ohio and 23-year-old Taune Pepper from Deer Trail, Colo. were killed.

9NEWS profiled Taune Pepper back in 1995. Her birth mother tried to have an abortion, but it didn't work and Taune survived. Doctors thought she may have had Down syndrome and other disorders. Jodi Pepper adopted Taune and taught her how to walk and talk. As Taune grew older she became a volunteer in the Federal Heights community. She also became a pro-life activist and got involved with New Life Worship Center.

That group from New Life Worship Center was headed to a convention in Portland this week to raise money for a program that helps them become ministers.

The 15 passenger van the group was in hit a patch of ice and rolled over according to Oregon investigators.

Most of the people in the 2002 Ford F-350 van were taken to area hospitals for varying degrees of injuries, and five are still in intensive care at Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise, Idaho.

They are: Aaron Stearling Werntz, 19, from Freeport, Ill.; Christine Sandra Aki, 18, from Golden, Colo.; Phillip Joel Harris, 24, from Attalla, Ala.; Katherine Elizabeth Darlene Pischura, 18, from Geneva, Ohio; and William Chris Rodgers, 22, from Lakewood, Colo.

The other people in the van who were hospitalized but released were: Lavan Ahmad Sayed, 24, from Louisville, Colo.; Ashley Wenk, 18 (the place she was from was not immediately available); Sarah Beth Devries, 18, from Golden, Colo.; Marketa Larie Smith, 26, (the place she was from was not immediately available); Brett James Iserman, 20, from Dakota, Ill.; Katherine Elizabeth Coppock, 19, from Cave Creek, Ariz.; Christian Wence, 19, from Ault, Colo.; and Javaar Zakori Howard, 18, from Denver, Colo.

Investigators say the van was driven by 25-year-old Nicole Elaine Byrd from Federal Heights, Colo.

Oregon State Police are continuing the investigation into the crash. They are looking into how many of the people in the van were wearing seat belts.

Some of the survivors got a look at the van's damage on Friday. A pastor from Oregon says the surviving church members felt lucky to be alive after seeing the damage.

Seven years ago, the same type of van carrying firefighters headed to the Hayman fire, flipped, killing five of the 11 people inside. A witness to that accident says the van was wobbling before it flipped.

The U.S. Department of Transportation says 15-passenger vans are more likely to be involved in a single-vehicle rollover crash than any other type of vehicle.