5 children, 1 adult die in Mississippi SUV crash

Six people from the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians died in an SUV crash near Philadelphia, Miss., on Saturday night, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Five children from the same family ranging in age from 18 months to 9 years old died along with a 37-year-old family friend when their Dodge Durango drove off a country road into a creek just after midnight, the Associated Press reported.

Neshoba County Sheriff Tommy Waddell said the accident wasn’t weather-related, but recent heavy rains had raised the water level of the creek the car plunged into, the AP reported.

“It looked like he has just run off the road and went into the water,” Prince said, according to the AP. “It was deep and swift. The vehicle was completely submerged.” The victims appear to have drowned, Waddell said.

The mother and father of the five children and the husband of the woman who perished survived the crash, the LA Times reported. The father, who was driving the vehicle, has been tested for alcohol consumption, but results of the test are not yet known.

None of the nine people in the car appeared to have been wearing seat belts, Waddell said, according to the LA Times.

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