CHERRY TWP — Three people were killed and five others were seriously injured in a pre-dawn crash of a van and pickup truck just south of Moniteau High School on Route 308.

The dead were among seven people who were in the van. No names of the victims were available this morning, but police said the dead were the driver of the van and two of the passengers.

Three of the four passengers who survived in the van had to be extricated and were flown by medical helicopter to unidentified hospitals. The fourth passenger who survived managed to get out of the van and crawl to the berm of the road.

“I could tell his legs were broken. He could barely move. He was in a lot of pain,” said Joni Bunyan, a member of the West Sunbury Volunteer Fire Department who was on her way to work and was the first on the scene.

Bunyan said she went to the van and tried to talk with the survivors.

“They didn’t say what happened. They were in a lot of pain,” she said.

She said the force of the impact propelled all occupants of the van into the front seat area.