PRYOR, Okla. — Three children are in critical condition this evening after police in Pryor said a semi truck rear ended a silver Honda minivan with four children and one adult inside around 11:30 Tuesday morning.

According to police, the children range in ages from an infant to six years old.

Three of the four children were life flighted to Tulsa. The children, ages nine months, four and six years of age are in critical condition according to Sergeant Scott Garrett with the Pryor Creek Police Department.

A fourth child and the mother were taken to the hospital in Tulsa via ambulance after suffering minor injuries.

“It’s just heartbreaking to see something like that,” said Sergeant Garrett.

Garrett said the minivan was stopped at a traffic light at the intersection of U.S. 69 and 49th street in Pryor when a Mack Semi truck, located directly behind it, rear ended the vehicle.

He said the mini van was in the outside south bound lane.

“The impact was pretty hard, it slung the vehicle over into 2 lanes of traffic into the center median on the opposite side of the intersection,” Garrett explained.

First responders could be seen clearing away children’s items from the road.

The Oklahoma Highway Patrol is assisting with the investigation to try and determine the speed of the semi on impact.

“The truck driver stated to one of the officers on scene that there was something wrong with his brakes, but at this time that’s why we have OHP on inspecting that vehicle,” said Garrett.

‘’It’s hard, especially when you have children of your own,” said Garrett, “it is very hard for the officers to deal with something like that, and we just got to do our jobs the best we can.”

Garrett said they have had some severe crashes at the same location with that stop light in the past.

The mother who was driving is from out of state, and her vehicle has a New York license plate. The trucking company is out of northern Kansas City, Missouri.

Police say the driver of the semi was not injured, and the investigation into why this happened is ongoing.

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