Oceana County, MI : 4-year-old remains critical after U.S. 31 crash on Tuesday, July 5, 2016

A 4-year-old boy, the youngest of seven people injured in a serious accident on U.S. 31 Tuesday, remains in critical condition, according to police.

Conner Julius Weston suffered a severe head injury when a semi-truck plowed into the back of a car he was riding in with his family, said Oceana County Sheriff Lt. Craig Mast.

His two brothers, ages 7 and 10, who were riding in the back seat with him and their parents all were injured when their 2000 Subaru Outback was hit on southbound U.S. 31 near Stony Lake Road around 12:45 p.m., according to a crash report.

Also injured was the driver of a second car that was rear-ended, a woman from Pennsylvania, and the semi-truck driver who told deputies he was distracted by another truck and didn't notice the cars in front of him had slowed, according to the report.

Mast said the scene was one of the worst he's responded to.

"It was a very graphic scene," Mast said, adding that Conner Weston was "injured severely."

Authorities will wait to see how the victims fare before deciding what charges to seek against the semi-truck driver, Mast said.

The 53-foot truck owned by Apache Logistics that Jonathon William Ashley, 25, of Ludington was driving was mostly empty, he said.

"If that would have been a full load, it would have hit that much harder," Mast said.

The truck first struck a 2016 Mazda 6 driven by Jerrine Marie Forrest of Greensburg, Pa., according to the crash report. Her car spun out into the median and the truck next hit the Subaru driven by Benjamin Weston, 40, of Port Huron.

Traffic on southbound U.S. 31 was slowing for upcoming road construction when the crash occurred, Mast said.

The crash closed the freeway for about six hours.

Source :
'Severely injured' 4-year-old remains critical after U.S. 31 crash