8 Critically Injured in 2-Car Crash : Accident: Vehicles collide in a Van Nuys intersection. Four of the most seriously hurt victims are children.

Eight people, including four children, were critically injured Monday night when two vehicles collided in what authorities said was one of the worst traffic accidents in years in the San Fernando Valley.

When rescuers arrived 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.

“This is about as bad as they get,” Assistant Fire Chief John Callahan said of the collision. “I haven’t seen eight critical patients in quite some time.”

The children were rushed to Van Nuys Airport, where Los Angeles Fire Department helicopters flew two of them to Childrens Hospital Los Angeles and the two others to UCLA Medical Center, city Fire Department spokesman Brian Humphrey said.

The adults were sent to three Valley hospitals and a ninth victim was being treated for less severe injuries, firefighters said.

Childrens Hospital spokeswoman Regina Birdsell said the two injured children taken there were boys ages 3 and 4 who had been thrown from a vehicle. “They were not wearing seat belts,” she said.

The younger boy may lose an arm, Humphrey said.

The other children--a boy and a girl, both 9--suffered head and chest injuries. The adults included two women between the ages of 20 and 35 and two men, about 30 years old.

Callahan described the injuries of all eight victims as potentially life-threatening. “They could go either way,” he said at the scene. “Certainly, with the speed of the response and the quality of the care at the hospitals they are going to, we’re hoping for the best.”

Authorities said it was too early to tell Monday evening the cause of the collision or whether one of the vehicles ran a red light, as suggested by at least one paramedic on the scene. Several witnesses reported hearing no screeching of brakes before the accident. The Blazer also appeared to have struck a utility pole head-on.

“I heard the crash . . . and saw that vehicle flip,” said neighbor Jayne Lipscomb, who was driving by when the collision occurred. “It was the loudest crash I have ever heard. It was just horrifying.”

Officials said they did not know if alcohol or drugs were involved.

Fire Capt. Pat Klein, who also lives in the area, said the intersection has been the scene of so many collisions that police had stepped up enforcement efforts to catch speeding motorists. He said he was one of the first to arrive at the scene and attended to a 29-year-old woman in serious condition.

“Our best guess is that seven people were in the Blazer and two in the station wagon,” Callahan said. “We assume they are related, but we do not know what the relations were.”

Two of the seriously injured adults were transported by ambulance to Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills, while the other two were taken to Northridge Hospital Medical Center. The other adult was taken to Valley Presbyterian Hospital in Van Nuys.

Authorities said the extensive damage to both vehicles indicated at least one of them was traveling at a high rate of speed. Traffic specialists from the Los Angeles Police Department were at the scene to begin an investigation.