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Good News van driver charged after wreck
Charges include failure to obey traffic control device
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Gainesville Police have identified Thomas Ramirez, 52, as the driver of the Good News at Noon van that ran a red light and collided with a dump truck Wednesday afternoon.

The van was carrying seven children at the time of the accident, but no one involved was seriously hurt.

Ramirez and two children, ages 12 and 14, were transported to the Northeast Georgia Medical Center after the wreck, but the Rev. Ed Grant, director of Good News at Noon, said everyone has since been released.

"Everybody is doing fine," Grant said Thursday. "We're just praising God things weren't worse then they were."

The accident occurred at the intersection of Pearl Nix Parkway and Dorsey Street in Gainesville as the group was on the way to get ice cream just before noon.

Police are unsure why Ramirez, general manager of Good News at Noon, ran the red light, but he has been cited for failure to obey a traffic control device.

Ramirez was also cited for violating child-restraint laws because two children were sharing a seat belt.

However, police said it was not these children who were transported to the hospital.

Grant said the two children who were transported have minor muscle aches from the accident and Ramirez received a broken nose and minor lacerations.