Four members of a British family have died in a car crash in Florida after visiting the Kennedy Space Center to watch the launch of Elon Musk’s SpaceX rocket.

Titusville police said Adam Stephenson, 30, Maryanne Stephenson, 29, Brian Stephenson, 66, and Sheralyn Stephenson, 56, all from Bristol, died on Monday after turning their rental car into the path of a pickup truck at an intersection.

Police said Adam Stephenson, who was driving, was apparently following the instruction of the GPS system in the Mitsubishi car that was telling him to perform a U-turn at the intersection.

All four of the relatives were pronounced dead by emergency services at the scene. The driver of the truck was taken to hospital and his injuries were not believed to be life-threatening.

Police said the family had been heading to their rental home in Davenport, and the GPS U-turn instruction was probably prompted by an earlier crash that had caused a road blockage.

Pictures of the crash scene showed a black Ford pickup truck that had crashed into the side of a white Mitsubishi. Police said their investigation into the crash was ongoing.

“Our emergency personnel were on the scene within a few minutes. There was nothing they could do, all four were pronounced deceased at the scene,” said the Titusville police deputy chief, Todd Hutchinson.

Officers notified the brother of the driver, a son of the older couple.

“So he lost his brother, his sister-in-law and his mum and dad,” Hutchinson said.“Very, very tragic. He was doing the notifications last night to other family members over in England. That was a very tough notification, it was tough for all involved.”

Police believed that the family had just left the Kennedy Space Center and were attempting to navigate back to their rented holiday home.

Hutchinson said their satnav showed they were on their way back to the property and had been re-routed due to an earlier collision.

“The GPS had indicated for them to make a U-turn at that intersection which was an illegal U-turn unfortunately and violated the right of way of the pick-up truck,” he said.



A spokesman for the UK Foreign Office said: “We are supporting the family of four British people who have died in Florida. Our thoughts are with them at this deeply difficult time.”