Nationwide golfer's wife killed in crash
SOUTH BEND, Ind. - PGA Tour officials confirmed yesterday that the wife of golfer Chris Smith was killed and two of his children were critically injured in a fiery weekend crash that also hurt several members of the London (Ontario) Silverbacks football team, including its owner.
"All of us at the PGA Tour are saddened by the news of the tragic accident which claimed the life of Beth Smith," PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem said.
PGA Tour media official Joe Chemycz, who was working the Nationwide Tour event in Fort Smith, Ark., where Smith played before missing the cut, said people close to Smith had informed tour officials that Beth Smith had been killed in the crash about 11:35 a.m. Sunday on Interstate 69 near Angola, in northern Indiana.
Smith's children, 16-year-old Abigail and 12-year-old Cameron, were listed in critical condition yesterday at Fort Wayne's Lutheran Hospital.
According to authorities, Abigail Smith was driving her mother and brother in a sport utility vehicle that lost control briefly. She tried to correct the vehicle's path, but collided head-on with a Greyhound bus carrying the football team.
Silverbacks owner Alan Lazar, who suffered internal and head injuries, was listed in good condition yesterday at Fort Wayne's Parkview Hospital. Eleven other passengers were taken to Cameron Hospital in Angola. *
