3 Killed as Car Smashes Stalled Tanker Truck : Traffic: Driver of disabled gasoline hauler was setting out hazard reflectors. Four passengers in the car are injured, three of them children.

Three people died and four others--including three children--suffered major injuries when a car smashed into the rear of a gasoline tanker truck stalled on the shoulder of the Golden State Freeway in Sun Valley, authorities said Tuesday.

The 9:45 p.m. Monday collision just north of Lankershim Boulevard clogged northbound traffic until 4:30 a.m. Tuesday, Officer Tami Low of the California Highway Patrol said.

The driver of the car, a 33-year-old man, and a passenger in the front seat, a 30-year-old woman, died instantly when their 1990 Mazda 626 crashed into the disabled tanker, Low said. A 28-year-old man who had been riding in the back seat died about an hour later at Pacifica Hospital of the Valley.

One of the children was seated in the front and two were in the back. All were injured.

The names of the victims were not released Tuesday, pending notification of relatives. Low said no one in the car was wearing seat belts.

The occupants of the car, who had been out to dinner at a Lankershim Boulevard restaurant, appeared to be related, Low said. The four adults in the car were from Los Angeles and the three children all were from El Monte, she said.

Witnesses said the car drove straight into the parked truck, plowing through three triangular hazard reflectors and nearly hitting the truck driver, Jessie Jorquez, 26, of Whittier. Jorquez, who leaped out of the car’s path, was uninjured.

Low declined to give details on what may have caused the crash.

She said investigators also were uncertain whether oil that had leaked from the truck’s engine contributed to the crash.

However, minutes before the fatal crash, Michael McNally, 20, of Sun Valley, lost control of his car on the oil-slick road and crashed into the center divider. He pulled to the side of the road to assess the damage to his car and assist Jorquez.

A 3-year-old boy sitting between the two people who died in the front seat suffered a fractured skull and a broken leg. He was in critical condition Tuesday at Childrens Hospital in Los Angeles.

A 7-year-old boy in the back seat also was taken to Childrens Hospital. He was in fair condition Tuesday. A 9-year-old boy was in stable condition at Pacifica Hospital.

A 35-year-old male passenger was taken to County-USC Medical Center but his condition was not released by hospital officials.

Low said the tanker, which was hauling 8,800 gallons of gasoline to Simi Valley, had engine problems and pulled to the side of the freeway. Oil from the truck’s engine leaked onto the freeway, but no fuel from the tanker escaped.

Jorquez, who drives for Petroleum Delivery Inc. in Paramount, was setting hazard reflectors along the roadway when he and McNally saw the car speeding toward them, said Brad Johansson, president of Petroleum Delivery.

“The car was coming straight toward us. I pushed the guy (Jorquez) out of the way and jumped myself,” McNally said. “It just about hit us.”