AN OVERLOADED CHURCH van ran through a stop sign, crossed all four lanes of a dark rural highway and nosedived into a canal, killing eight people and injuring 10 early today in southwest Florida, authorities said.

“They didn’t see that stop sign. They shot right through it,” Glades County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Duane Pottorff said. “It was a sad evening.”

The van was heading back to a church in Fort Pierce, north of West Palm Beach on the Atlantic coast, after a weekend convention in Fort Myers, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.

Eighteen people were in the 15-seat-capacity van when it crashed about 12.30am this morning, according to the Highway Patrol.

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A 911 call came in at 12.31am and deputies arrived four minutes later, officials said. The van had gone down an 8-to-10 foot embankment and landed in shallow water of the canal, which is lined with tall grass and weeds.

“That’s a very steep embankment, and they kind of did a nosedive,” said Lt Gregory S. Bueno of the Highway Patrol.

The crash killed the male driver and seven passengers, four male and three female, troopers said.

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The Florida Highway Patrol identified 10 other passengers taken to four hospitals. Among them was a four-year-old child — who was not in a car seat, Bueno said — in serious condition. Four other adults were in critical condition.

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