Crash ejects 5 children from van on 1-95, injuring them, 3 others

Eight people - including five children - were seriously injured yesterday when the van they were in spun out of control and crashed on Interstate 95 in Dedham, State Police said.

Five children and one adult were ejected from the van after the driver, 36-year-old Rupal Patel of Bourne, lost control of the vehicle in the left lane, and the van veered to the right, struck the guardrail, and cut back to the left onto the highway's grass median, a State Police statement said.

Police responded to the crash about 1:15 p.m. None of the children was wearing a seat belt, police said.

Three children were taken by ambulance to Children's Hospital Boston, and two were taken to Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

Another passenger, identified by police as 35-year-old Mya Patel of Bourne, was sitting in the center of the back row when she was ejected from the vehicle.

She was taken to Brigham and Women's Hospital.

Tina Patel of Falmouth, 40, who was in the front passenger seat and wearing a seat belt, was taken by ambulance to Brigham and Women's Hospital.

The driver was taken by ambulance to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, police said.

Tina and Mya Patel were released from the hospitals. Hospital officials did not have information on the conditions of the rest of the patients. Police said all are expected to survive.

The names of the injured children were not released.

Police had to close two right lanes of I-95 South for two hours yesterday, police said.

The crash is being investigated by the State Police Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Section and the Crime Scene Services Section.