Student discovered alive by parents five weeks after car crash claimed the lives of four of her classmates

A woman whose family thought she had died in a car crash described the surreal moment they held her funeral - as she lay in a hospital bed.

Whitney Cerak was in a horrific accident in 2006 that killed four of her fellow students and a staff member.Their van was hit by a truck, which crushed the vehicle and caused the death of the five victims.

Whitney survived the ordeal but was wrongly identified as her classmate Laura Van Ryn, who had passed away.

They looked strikingly similar and were both students at Taylor University in Indiana.

Laura Van Ryn was killed in the horror smash (Photo: Reuters)

Whitney told of the heartache her family went through in burying their "daughter" - only to find out she was alive.

Because five weeks after the crash, they learned the truth that Whitney was in a coma, covered in bandages and lying in a hospital bed.

Laura Van Ryn's sister noticed her teeth looked different to her sibling's, sparking an investigation that uncovered the mix-up.

The two girls had been misidentified after the crash, reports Mail Online .

Whitney spoke at a memorial for victims 

Whitney, who has now married and goes by the surname Wheeler, told how her family held her funeral where they discussed how bad she was at sports - and how her sister thought she "needed to shower more".

She attended a memorial service yesterday for families of the victims 10 years after their deaths.

Relatives of Brad Larson, Laurel Erb, Betsy Smith and university staff member Monica Felver were there to pay tribute to their loved ones.

Whitney Cerak is now Whitney Wheeler after marrying Matt Wheeler (Photo: Facebook)

Whitney told the Detroit Free Press: "A lot of people wonder what will people say about you at your funeral. I know."

She also said how she "lost her identity" following the accident and suffered from survivors' guilt.

Whitney said: "Not only did I have the feeling of guilt, but I also had the feeling of anger, always being in the public eye, never wanting to be.

"Everything I had known about myself, my identity, was swallowed up by this accident. This is how I was known, just as that girl that survived."

Truck driver Robert Spencer, who caused the crash, served two years of a four-year sentence for reckless homicide.