Mackenzie Turner: The teen who lost her life in horrific Tennessee church van wreck

A church van retuing from a youth outing overtued in a Tennessee highway accident, killing one teenage girl and injuring 11 others.

The youths from the Destiny Church in Columbia were retuing from a sleepover event at another church in Memphis Thursday moing.

Sgt. Chad Smith of the Tennessee Highway Patrol said 12 people - six boys, five girls and the driver - were in the van when it crashed.

Children and teens typically stay up all night to participate in 'lock-in' activities, and troopers say they are investigating the possibility that 24-year-old driver Bobby Joe Sasser fell asleep at the wheel.

Trooper Bruce Gildersleeve said 14-year-old MacKenzie Tuer, who had not been wearing a seatbelt, was killed in the wreck.

Deadly crash: Emergency crews work at the scene where a van from Columbia's Destiny Church overtued on a Tennessee interstate

It was Trooper Gildersleeve who went to the church at about noon to tell the girl’s mother, Jean Ann Tuer, that her daughter had died.

When she leaed of the crash, the mother reportedly collapsed and had to be helped inside the church.

'A special group of kids': Authorities say the church group was retuing home after a sleepover event in Memphis

Bradd Kimes, a Destiny Church Board member, told the Columbia Daily Herald newspaper that the children were a 'special group of kids.'

He said: 'We just ask that you pray for us and pray for these parents that are dealing with this.'

Tragic wreck: Tennessee State Troopers are investigating the possibility that the driver of the van may have fallen asleep

Ashley Culver, a spokeswoman for Vanderbilt Children's Hospital in Nashville, says three children taken there are now in stable condition.

Traffic was halted in both directions late Thursday moing to allow medical helicopters to take the injured children to nearby hospitals.

The church suffered another loss just last month, when a teen member and another youth were killed in a car crash in nearby Mount Pleasant.

Loss: Mackenzie Tuer is the Destiny Church's second teen member to be killed in two months