Police: 6 dead in crash near Pa.-Ohio border

WEST SPRINGFIELD, Pa. (AP) _ A minivan carrying seven tourists from Michigan to Niagara Falls crossed a median on Interstate 90 and was hit by an oncoming car, leaving six people dead, police said.

The minivan was about three miles inside the Pennsylvania-Ohio border around 4 p.m. Saturday when it crossed the highway and began flipping and rolling, coming to rest on its roof, authorities said.

It was then struck by an oncoming westbound car driven by Melanie Cesnick, 25, of Avon Lake, Ohio, police said. She was treated at a hospital and released Saturday night, said state police Cpl. Kevin Havern.

The driver of the minivan, Kaushik Deb, 28, of Rochester Hills, Mich., died on impact. The passengers killed were Manoj Jharia, 31; Mili Jharia, 28; Nitin Agarwal, 30; Swati Agarwal, 25; and Shubham Choudhary, 25. All five lived in Farmington Hills, Mich.; the Jharias and Agarwals were married, police said.

The sole survivor in the minivan, Nitin Gupta, 28, of Farmington Hills, was in the front passenger seat, Havern said. He was also treated and released from a hospital Saturday.

The seven tourists were citizens of India who were working in the U.S. at Syntel Inc. in Troy, Mich., police said. They were traveling with another van carrying six people that was a few minutes ahead of them.

The two groups had just left a rest stop and traveled about a quarter-mile when the accident occurred, said Kranthi Bandaru, who was traveling in the second van.

"We left them about 10 minutes before they drove on," Bandaru told the Erie Times-News. "We continued down the road when we received a cell phone call from Nitin that there was an accident. That's when we turned around."

State police said they had not determined the cause of the crash. Erie County Coroner Lyell Cook said he has ordered toxicology tests for minivan's driver.