8 Critically Injured in 2-Car Crash

Eight people, four of them children, were critically injured in a high-speed collision at a Reseda intersection Monday night.

When firefighters and paramedics arrived on the scene moments after the 7:45 p.m. crash at Sherman Way and Louise Avenue, they found some of the victims trapped in the vehicles--a Chevy Blazer and a station wagon--and others in the street and on the grass nearby, bloodied and unconscious.

The children were rushed to nearby Van Nuys Airport, from which Los Angeles Fire Department helicopters airlifted two of them to Childrens Hospital of Los Angeles and two to UCLA Medical Center, department spokesman Brian Humphrey said. The adults were sent to various hospitals and a ninth person was being treated for less severe injuries.

Regina Birdsell, a spokeswoman for Childrens Hospital, said the two victims taken there were boys between ages 3 and 6 who had been thrown from a vehicle. “They were not wearing seat belts,” she said.