Update 5:15 p.m. Three people died and six were injured Thursday when two vans crashed head-on in north Redlands on a stretch of Orange Street near the Santa Ana River where the posted speed limit is 55 miles per hour, according to law enforcement and city officials.
Six of eight people in one of the vans, a Toyota Sienna, were not wearing seat belts before the crash, Redlands spokesman Carl Baker said.
The deceased were identified as two men and one woman, all occupants of the Sienna. The six injured were all men, and included the sole occupant of the other van, a Chevrolet.
Names and ages of the deceased victims were withheld pending notification of their families. Condition updates for the six injured were not available.
Orange Street, one of the primary routes connecting Redlands and Highland, was closed more than seven hours for investigation of the crash and the deaths.
The road was re-opened about 4:45 p.m. Jan. 17, Baker said.
Update 3:20 p.m. Six of eight people in a minivan were not wearing seat belts before a head-on crash with another van that resulted in three fatalities on Orange Street in north Redlands, a police spokesman said Thursday afternoon.
The driver and front passenger in the minivan were wearing seat belts, but the six rear passengers "were thrown toward the front of the vehicle by the force of the collision," Redlands spokesman Carl Baker said.
The three who died in the crash were all occupants of the northbound minivan, Baker said. The remaining five occupants of the van, and the driver of the southbound van, were all hospitalized. An update on their conditions was not available.
The speed limit on Orange Street where the crash occurred, just south of the Santa Ana River bridge, is posted 55 miles per hour.
Remains of the deceased had been removed as of 3:20 p.m. and police expected to re-open Orange Street shortly, Baker said.
Update 11:20 a.m. Authorities on scene tell Patch that a total of three people have died and another six have been hospitalized in a Redlands crash.
The crash, which appears to have been a head-on collision between two white vans, happened around 9:30 a.m. along Orange Street, just south of the Santa Ana River bridge.
All nine people involved are adults, though their identities are unknown at this time, according to police spokesman Carl Baker.
Baker tells Patch that there was one person in one van, and eight in the other, smaller minivan. All the deceased were riding in the minivan.
As of the posting of this article, about a dozen police and investigators were on scene, awaiting the arrival of the coroner.
Orange Street will remain closed in the area for at least another couple hours, police say.
Posted 10:37 a.m. The Redlands Fire Department is reporting that three people were killed in a crash on Orange Street near Pioneer Avenue.
An alert was issued just after 10:15 a.m. Officials said it was a head on crash that killed three and injured six who have been taken to hospitals.
More details will be posted as they become available.
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How can you widen a road in Santa Ana Woolly-Star and Santa Ana Sucker fish critical habitat? Will our fear of highways outweigh humankind's fear of planetary destruction? The other 99.99% of the Orange Street drivers survive because they anticipate and drive responsibly. In other words, they already are proactive.