Two Leesburg children died at the scene of a fiery head-on collision late Saturday afternoon in eastern Lake County.
The four-year-old and two-year-old were passengers in a 2011 four-door Kia which was westbound on State Road 46 at 5:40 p.m. Saturday at Bear Pond Access Road when the 20-year-old Leesburg man driving the vehicle was passing other traffic in a double-yellow no passing zone, according to an accident report from the Florida Highway Patrol.
The vehicle collided head-on with a 2011 Toyota pickup hauling a trailer driven by a 44-year-old Lake Mary man. He had been traveling in the opposite direction. The pickup overturned and caught fire. The driver and four occupants were able to get out of the pickup.
Two of the children traveling in the Kia died at the scene. A one-year-old boy in the same vehicle, also from Leesburg, suffered serious injuries and was airlifted to Arnold Palmer Children’s Hospital in Orlando. The 20-year-old male driver and a 21-year-old female passenger, also from Leesburg, were transported to Central Florida Regional Hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
The two children who died at the scene had not been restrained in child safety seats, the report noted. One of the children was ejected from the vehicle.
It was not clear if the seriously injured one-year-old had been in a child safety seat.
The crash remains under investigation.
