RAINSVILLE, AL (WAFF) -
A woman remains in the hospital Friday after the van she was riding in struck a tree.
It happened Thursday on Rogers Avenue in Rainsville.
Police said Hubert Stiefel was driving his girlfriend Wanda Jones's van Thursday when the accelerator stuck and sent the van into a tree at a high rate of speed.
Stiefel was killed and Jones was taken to Huntsville Hospital, where she's listed in serious condition. Stiefel's cousin Joann Little also died.
Although not handicapped, Stiefel was driving a van that had all the controls at the steering wheel.
"He knew how to drive it. That wasn't his first time to drive it. He drove it all the time," said Stiefel's sister, Willene Hamilton.
She wonders if his health also contributed to the accident.
"He was losing a lot of weight and going down hill. We wondered and wondered, is that cancer coming back?"
As she prays for Jones recovery, Hamilton remembers her former serviceman brother as a guy who stepped up to help take care of his eight siblings when they were young.
"He always saw that we had Christmas and birthdays. He would give mother money. My mother was a single parent," said Hamilton.
As standard procedure in their investigation of the crash, Chief Centers said a toxicology report will be done on Stiefel.
Related Stories:
Copyright 2011 WAFF. All rights reserved.
Hubert Stiefel
All content © Copyright 2000 - 2012 WorldNow and WSFA, a Raycom Media Station. 