(Reuters) - Police on Sunday were investigating an accident that killed five people, including three toddlers, when their car stopped on a Kansas City freeway and was struck from behind by a semi-truck.
Two women and three children under the age of 3 died in the Saturday wreck on Interstate 435 several miles east of downtown Kansas City, Missouri, police said in a statement and interviews.
The car had stopped in the outermost southbound lane of the freeway when it was struck at about 5 p.m., police said.
"It was not immediately clear if the car had become disabled in the roadway or possibly run out of gas," police said in the statement.
Two of the victims died at the scene and three died at area hospitals, police said. Their names and how they may have been related was not disclosed, pending further investigation.
The driver of the truck, unhurt, tested negative for alcohol and was released pending further investigation, said Darin Snapp, a spokesman for Kansas City police. He was not charged, Snapp said.
The accident shut down southbound traffic on the interstate for about four hours, police said.
(Reporting by Kevin Murphy; editing by Matthew Lewis)
