Reported by: Jay Warren
Photographed by: Jeremy Glover, Jon Atkinson
Six people are in the hospital after a horrific crash along Kentucky's AA Highway in Alexandria Tuesday afternoon.
The crash involved four vehicles – including a tractor-trailer loaded with steel plating.
Michael Evans, who 9News was told may go by the name "Brian," is a sergeant with the 478th Engineer Battalion out of Ft. Thomas.
His wife Leah, and their two children, were struck in the intersection and are now in critical condition.
They had just moved last weekend and he was due to deploy in roughly three days.
Police say his wife Leah had the green light.
A disastrous chain of events Tuesday led to the four-vehicle crash which put six people in the hospital.
Police say the semi was traveling southbound on the AA Highway, when it broad-sided the pick-up truck driven by 37-year-old Leah Evans.
The truck's driver, Gregory Gibson, of Abingdon, Virginia, lost control, police say, and forced the driver of a crane, Randall Warner, of Brooksville, Indiana, into a ditch.
That's when police say the semi flipped on its side.
"When the truck turned over, the flatbed turned over," said Lieutenant George Schreiner, of the Alexandria police department.
"It lost it's load. There were several plates – I don't know how many there were – but ten or fifteen of them, they were were sliding down the roadway southbound in the northbound lanes," said Lt. Schreiner, "and that's what contacted that last vehicle down there."
In that car, was the Cox family from West Virginia – Bruce, Sharon and their eight-year-old daughter Samantha.
In the meantime, Ron Allari, a Veteran's Service Officer, has been helped notify Evan's unit, which was training in Wisconsin.
"The normal procedure within the military, since it's a family emergency, there's some question about his children and his wife that they will put him on emergency leave," explained Allari.
Brian Evans is now on emergency leave.
In fact, neighbors of his parents tell 9News that he was due to arrive at around 10:30 p.m. Tuesday night.
Police were unable to give 9News an update on the patients' conditions.
However, 9News was told Leah Evans remains in critical condition and that the Evan's two children were in emergency surgery.
9News also has not received an update on the Cox family members' conditions.
In the meantime, police say the accident is still under investigation, and that they have not determined whether the semi driver acted criminally.
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