FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A child is dead following a crash on U.S. 27 Tuesday afternoon that left six other children and two adults injured.
Florida Highway Patrol Lt. Yanko Reyes said one of the children, possibly a teenager, was pronounced dead when he arrived at Broward Health Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale.
Earlier information from the Broward Sheriff’s Office and Broward Sherriff Fire Rescue said the crash involved a minivan and a tractor trailer. FHP has since determined it was a black Nissan sedan rather than a minivan.
Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue Battalion Chief Michael Kane said the two adults and seven children in the car were heading north on U.S. 27 shortly before 3 p.m. when the trailer hit the car from behind at mile marker 47.7, the borderline between Broward and Palm Beach County.
The car had “extensive damage” to its rear, fire rescue officials said in a news release Tuesday evening, with the impact of the crash smashing the rear of the car about 12 to 18 inches into the backseat.
Photos of the car provided by Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue showed the crash rendered the rear-end of the car unrecognizable and smashed the windshield.
Three of the children were in critical condition at the hospital, fire rescue officials said. All of the children were under age 16.
The driver of the tractor trailer was not hospitalized, Kane said.
Reyes said Tuesday evening that the remaining eight injured were in stable condition.
The relationship between the children and adults in the car was not immediately known Tuesday afternoon.
U.S. 27 was closed in both directions for more than an hour. The south side reopened after 4 p.m., FHP said in a tweet, and the north side reopened about 8 p.m.
FHP will handle the crash investigation.
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