Parents and a child killed, 2 others injured in freeway accident

Taipei, Dec. 19 (CNA) A married couple and their 1-year-old daughter were killed in a car crash on National Freeway No. 3 on Monday night that also left two other people injured, according to freeway police.

The accident occurred at the 246.9-kilometer mark of the freeway's northbound lanes in Zhushan Township of Nantou County in central Taiwan at around 10 p.m. Monday, freeway police said Tuesday.

A car driven by a 43-year-old man surnamed Shih (施) smashed into a guardrail dividing the northbound and southbound lanes and then flipped over, ending up occupying parts of the inside and middle lanes of the three-lane highway, freeway police said after investigating the accident overnight.

A 63-year-old man surnamed Yen (顏) then hit the car from behind because he did not have time to dodge it, freeway police said.

The impact threw the woman inside the flipped car -- later identified as Shih's wife -- on to the road, and she was then run over by three passing vehicles and died at the scene immediately, freeway police said.

Meanwhile, Shih and his young child, who were stuck inside the car, were seriously wounded during the crash and suffered out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA), freeway police said.

The two were later declared dead at Chu Shang Show Chwan Hospital and Nantou Hospital, respectively.

Yen was later found by rescuers to be slightly injured while the woman in the car's passenger seat was seriously injured, according to the Nantou County Fire Bureau.

Traffic did not return to normal until 11:59 p.m. Monday, freeway police said.

The Nantou County Fire Bureau said it dispatched six emergency vehicles, including four ambulances, to the scene as soon as it was informed of the accident.

Paramedics declared the woman who had been thrown out on to the road dead and found Shih and his daughter suffering OHCA, according to the bureau.

Freeway police said the three people who died were part of the same family and lived in Gukeng Township in Yunlin County.

The seriously injured woman in the silver car, surnamed Wu (吳), 60, was transferred from Chu Shang Show Chwan Hospital to a Taichung hospital for treatment while the driver was discharged from the hospital that took care of him, police said.