KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Five people are dead, including three children and one teen, following an accident involving a semi-truck on I-435 and Eastwood Trafficway Saturday night.
Due to the accident, the interstate was closed down for several hours on Saturday night.
Police say the vehicle was stopped in the outer most southbound lane of the interstate, and a semi-truck was traveling southbound struck the vehicle from behind. Five people were in that vehicle.
Police say the one person originally reported as surviving, 17-year-old Dominque Johnson of Kansas City, Missouri, who was inside the vehicle during the crash and was transported to the hospital in critical condition, died late Saturday at the hospital.
They say two of the children, seven-month-old Taeshawn Hutchison and two-year-old JaRiah Hutchison, died at the scene, the other child, one-year-old JaNijah Hutchison, and an adult, 24-year-old Shante Hopkins, who was the mother of the children, died at the hospital.
Police say for some time they weren’t even sure what kind of car was involved in the accident because it was buried under the semi-truck.
“It’s pretty catastrophic were looking at it we just were now able to get it freed from underneath the tractor trailer and were taking a look at it right now but it wasn’t immediately apparent what kind,” said Sgt. Bill Mahoney with the Kansas City, Missouri Police Department.
Police say the driver of that tractor trailer is unharmed. They were getting a statement from him and gathering evidence at the scene on Saturday night.
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