14 DAY TRIAL // Authorities have announced the deaths of seven people in a horrific two-vehicle collision in Truxton Car, upstate New York.
According to WXHC, a tractor trailer and a minivan crashed on Wednesday, May 29, prompting an intervention by local police and the Truxton and Cuyler Firefighting Department.
Officials at the Cortland County Sheriff's Office are yet to release the name of the victims, but some of them are children.
Their remains were processed by the County Coroner’s Office and autopsies will be performed at Lourdes Hospital in Binghamton.
According to AZ Star Net, the crash took place on Route 13, roughly 25 miles (40 km) from Syracuse. At 6:05 p.m., the tractor trailer was traveling southbound.
As it reached number 4211 on Route 13 in Truxton, in the Morgan Hill Road and Crains Mills Road area, the trailer broke loose. It swerved into the oncoming lane and crashed into the minivan.
An unknown number of children were passengers in the family car, the police reported. The truck driver was traveling with a passenger himself and they both escaped the incident uninjured.
A total of eight people were in the minivan at the time of impact, and only one of them survived it.
The trailer was used to carry dismantled, crushed vehicles for a wrecking yard in Georgetown, New York.
Capt. Mark Helms of the Cortland County Sheriff's Department adds that the smaller vehicle was torn apart in the crash.
The cause of the accident is yet to be made public as an investigation into the matter is being conducted.
Route 13 between Crains Mills Road and Keeney Gulf Road was closed off for hours as investigative, cleaning and reconstruction crews scoured the area.
Weather conditions could have factored in the crash, with hail and thunderstorms registered upstate on Wednesday.