5 members of Arkansas family killed in Indiana crash

Five members of an Arkansas family died in a two-vehicle crash on an Indiana highway Friday, authorities said.

Dennis Nguyen, 43, and his wife, Thu-Ha Thi Cao, 44, and three children died as a result of the crash on U.S. 31 about 40 miles north of Indianapolis, the Indiana State Police said in a news release.

The family's Arkansas home wasn't identified in the news release, but it was widely reported by various media outlets that the family was from Rogers. Police also didn't release the identities of the children because they hadn't been confirmed.

Police said Nguyen was driving a 2001 Jaguar south about 8:45 a.m. Friday on U.S. 31, about 5 miles southwest of Tipton, Ind., when he lost control for unknown reasons.

Nguyen overcorrected, went off the road into a grassy median, then entered the northbound lanes of U.S. 31. A 2011 Peterbilt semitrailer carrying 30,000 pounds of pickles was northbound in the right lane.

The truck's driver, William Stump, 41, of Carmel, Ind., moved to the outer shoulder to avoid the Jaguar, but the front of the truck hit the Jaguar, which was facing west, on the driver's side, police said.

Nguyen and his wife as well as two of the children, all of whom had to be extricated from the Jaguar, were pronounced dead at the scene. The third child was airlifted to an Indianapolis hospital but later died, police said.

Stump was treated at a hospital in Tipton and released.

Indiana State Police reported its officers worked numerous crashes because of ice on area roadways Friday morning, but troopers said it was too early to say if weather was a factor in this crash.

Metro on 12/28/2014

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