Iowa State Patrol said that three children, ages 5, 4 and 2, died after their stationary SUV was rear-ended by a truck on Monday, Oct. 7.
Three young children who died after an Iowa car crash, which also injured three other adults as well as another child, were not wearing seatbelts, according to authorities.
Iowa State Patrol (ISP) said in an accident report that three children, ages 5, 4 and 2, died after their stationary SUV was rear-ended by a truck on Monday, Oct. 7. According to the report, none of the children were wearing seatbelts, nor were the adults in the same vehicle.
According to a press release from the Clinton County Sheriff’s Office, another child, who survived but has not been named, was in the SUV at the time of the crash. It is unclear if they were wearing a seatbelt.
The occupants of the SUV were identified by police as Layani CarterEpps, 5; Ja’Cesun Jackson, 4; Miko King, 2; Amariana Carter Brown, 22; and Sunika Carter, 38, who was listed as the driver.
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According to the sheriff’s statement, the two-vehicle crash happened shortly after 9 a.m. near the 3700 block of Highway 30 in DeWitt, along Iowa’s eastern border.
Police said that the SUV had seemingly stopped or become disabled in one of the eastbound lanes of Highway 30 “when it was struck from behind by the flatbed truck/trailer.”
The vehicle ended up in a ditch adjacent to the highway following the crash, and the truck was found stopped along the shoulder with “significant frontend damage.”
The driver of the Dodge truck, 70, is the only person who was wearing a seatbelt at the time of the accident.
Jackson and King were pronounced dead at the scene, while CarterEpps was taken to a local university hospital, where the 5-year-old child “died shortly after her arrival,” according to officials. The unnamed child was also taken to a nearby hospital for treatment.
The sheriff’s office added that the three adults were taken to various local hospitals, where they were treated for their injuries.
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A GoFundMe has been set up on behalf of the victims, which has raised over $7,000 in donations as of Thursday, Oct. 25.
An investigation into the crash is ongoing.
