Driver dies after losing consciousness in three-car crash near theme parks

An Alabama man is dead after suffering a medical episode that caused him to lose consciouness and crash the vehicle he was driving into the rear of two other automobiles late Thursday, troopers said.Robert T. Smith, 69, of Huntsville, Ala., was pronounced dead at Celebration Hospital following a crash in which a 70-year-old woman was a passenger in the vehicle.Florida Highway Patrol's Sgt. Kim Montes said Smith was heading southbound on State Road 535 about 11 p.m. when he passed out and the car continued to roll forward to the intersection with Meadow Creek Drive.The passenger, Rosalie Smith, tried unsuccessfully to stop the car and it struck the rear of 16-year-old Cooper O'Conner's jeep.The impact pushed the sport-utility vehicle forward into another car driven by 28-year-old Rachel Orlando, who was stopped at a red light. O'Conner and Orlando were not injured in the crash.