A deadly accident outside an east Bradenton church won't soon be forgotten.
Gerrit Koedot, the pastor of the Sugar Creek Community's church, had just dismissed his congregation on Sunday when an SUV plowed into a group of people outside. He was just steps away at the time.
"It was an awful scene like out of a movie," he said. "It’s too difficult to even talk about it.”
Florida Highway Patrol said 79-year-old Doreen Landstra killed three and seriously injured four others when she put her SUV into reverse instead of drive.
It all happened following a church service at the elderly community’s country club.
Speaking to Bay News 9 for the first time since the accident, Koedet said he’s doing all he can to comfort the four victims still alive and loved ones three others left behind.
"They’re saying stuff like, 'I don’t know what to do, I’m confused, I don’t know how I’m going to live without her,'" he said.
We knocked on Landstra’s door, but Doreen and her husband Fred did not want to talk. Off camera, Doreen told us Sunday it was all just a terrible accident.
Koedot said he knows Landstra well. He said she’s at church every Sunday, and used to be a big part of the choir.
He said he can’t imagine what she must be going through.
"I wouldn’t trade that burden for anything," he said. "That is probably the heaviest weight to carry.”
More than 300 packed a vigil Sunday night to remember popular community members, 72-year-old Margaret Vanderlaan, 70-year-old Wilhemina Paul, and the 80-year-old woman visiting her sister from the Netherlands.
"They wanted to say to each other, we’re in this together," Koedot said.
Landstra has not been charged.
One of the four injured victims was released from the hospital. At last check the other three are still recovering.
The Sugar Creek Community did not want the news media on its property Monday.