ALACHUA, Fla. — Five children were among the seven people who were killed Thursday in a fiery crash on Interstate 75 near Gainesville, the Florida Highway Patrol said.
Seven people were critically injured in the Alachua crash, FHP said. The crash was reported shortly before 3:45 p.m.
FHP said a tractor-trailer was traveling north on I-75 when it collided with another vehicle. After the crash, both vehicles traveled through the guardrail, into the center median and into the south lanes of I-75, FHP said.
The tractor-trailer crashed into a passenger van and another tractor-trailer that was traveling in the south lanes of I-75, FHP said. The tractor-trailer caught fire and a pickup truck then traveled through the scene, FHP said.
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FHP said that the five children in the passenger van who were killed were from Louisiana. Lt. Patrick Riordan said the van was on its way to Disney World. The two tractor-trailer drivers were killed. The names of the victims have not been released.
Authorities said the fire was ignited after about 50 gallons of diesel spilled onto the highway.
"Anytime you have a truck that's involved and you have that much metal scraping each other, and that type of collision, there's a high probability that you could have a fire, and in fact, that's what happened, " Riordan said.
Both directions of the interstate were closed because a large amount of personal property, vehicle parts and burned vehicles were strewn across the road, Riordan said. Northbound lanes and one southbound lane have reopened, but several southbound lanes will remain closed through at least Saturday.
The crash remains under investigation.