Couple Killed, Children Injured as Dream Disney Vacation Ends in Fatal Car Crash
A McDonald's general manager and her husband, who were known as the couple others leaned on, died in a crash while on vacation with their two young daughters in Florida on Sunday.
The children, who are recovering from serious injuries at a local hospital, don't yet know that their parents are dead.
The Orlando Sentinel reported on Monday that the couple, Sarah Moyers, 39, and her husband, Greg, 40, had saved for months so they could afford their Disney World, Universal Studios vacation away from Leadwood, a small town in Missouri where they have lived for more than 20 years.
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It was also the first real vacation for the family.
Florida Highway Patrol told the Daily Journal Online that Greg, who owns Moyers Muffler and Brakes in Park Hills, Missouri, was driving with his family in the left lane on eastbound Interstate 4 in his 2007 Nissan when Charles King, 43, of New London, North Carolina, who was also driving his 2016 Ford Focus eastbound on I-4 in the center lane, drifted into the left lane and struck the Moyers' car. The hit force the Moyers' car off the road into tree.
Greg and Sarah were both pronounced dead at the scene by the medical examiner while their daughters, Hailey, 13, and Sophia, 8, were both injured in the crash, which occurred about 12:30 p.m. on Sunday.
The Kansas City Star reports that the girls were airlifted to Orlando's Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children. Hailey reportedly sustained serious injuries, and Sophia was reportedly in critical condition as of Sunday evening.
"Their kids were their world. They were very involved and supportive parents and just wanted the best for them. They wanted the girls to experience Disney and the beach," Loni Burnside Eaton, a close friend of the couple, told the Sentinel. "I can't believe this really happened."
Eaton remembered the couple, who were raising five children including two they had taken in from Sarah's sister, as giving people who were always offering help to others.
"The girls don't know what happened to them [their parents] yet. Everyone is on their way down there and that's when they'll tell them," Eaton said, weeping. "It's just devastating."
Sarah Moyers' stepmother, Cheryl Neeley, described the couple as "the rock" of the close-knit family. She told the Sentinel they held Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners at their home and were the couple others would lean on.
"They just clicked when they met," Neeley said. "They were amazing together. It's going to leave a big void in our family and also in the community because everyone knew them and loved them."
A GoFundMe campaign started by family friend Jason Nash has raised more than half of a $10,000 goal in just six hours to help the Moyers' children as of Monday afternoon.
"Greg was one of my closest friends, he was a giver, always willing to help. He would help anyone at any time. I know that if roles were reversed, he would be the first one to step up and help support my family," wrote Nash on the campaign page.
"Please help me do what I know my friend would've done for me. SUPPORT! Every penny you donate will be used to help support these two girls as they take on life without the two people that loved them the most," he added.
