Tractor-trailer collides with cars, killing six motorists

PURCELL, Okla. -- A tractor-trailer carrying a cargo of peaches slammed into two cars and killed six people, including a family of five from Nebraska, police said.

The truck, traveling northbound on Interstate 35, hit a sport utility vehicle carrying the family and then traveled 120 feet farther, where it hit a car and killed a female passenger, police said. The car driver and truck driver were injured in the Saturday accident.

Road construction had closed one of the two northbound lanes.

Police said the SUV and the car appeared to have slowed or stopped in the road before the crash.

Troopers identified the victims in the SUV as Rodney Johnson, 35, and Amy Johnson, 32, of Fremont, Neb., and their children, Alyssa, 12, Sheldon, 8, and Mariah, 6.

The dead car passenger was identified as Peggy Howard, 40, of Tishomingo.

Truck driver Raymond Box, 40, of Lonoke, Ark., was in fair condition at University Medical Center in Oklahoma City.

The driver of the car was in serious condition at the same hospital.