Family of 5 killed in wrong way crash on KY interstate

DEARBORN, MI (WKYT/WXYZ/CNN) - A Michigan mosque is mourning a family of five killed in an alleged drunk driving accident in Kentucky.

Issam and Rima Abbas were driving back from Florida with their three children in the car.

Police say 41-year-old Joey Lee Bailey entered the northbound lanes of Interstate 75 traveling southbound, hitting the family’s SUV head-on.

The Abbas' SUV caught fire after the crash.

"We don't know how to feel, we don't know how to express it," said family member Hassan Abbas.

He and others packed into the Islamic Center of America to remember the Abbas family.

“See this tragedy is not only us now, for the family, is for the whole community and for the humanity too because anybody can hear about this tragedy is going to feel it," Hassan said.

Issam Abbas was an attorney and real estate agent in the community.

Rima Abbas was a family doctor working for Beaumont Medical Center with her own practice in Garden City.

They had three children, 14-year-old Ali Abbas, 13-year-old Isabella Abbas, and 7-year-old Giselle Abbas.

Law enforcement in Kentucky said all five died when a drunk driver hit them going the wrong.

"When you drink and drive you are out of control, you don't know what you are doing, you're putting people life in jeopardy," Hassan said.

The Abbas family is well known in the Islamic community.

Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, who also knew the family, was in attendance at the mosque.

"We have to accept that this is the work of God, we don't know, hand with Allah we believe, that this family went to another world, that they are going to remain alive we believe that death is not the termination," said Imam Hassan Haba with the Islamic Center of America.

The community will be holding a week full of prayer and tears for people who loved the Abbas family.

"You're going to hold your tears as much as you can but finally your tears are going to be stronger than you, it’s going to come out," Hassan said.

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