MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Texas – Five Texas A&M students are in the hospital after a head-on crash.
The accident happened at around 8:30 p.m. Sunday and shut down a stretch of State Highway 105 East.
According to the Texas Department of Public Safety, the students were westbound on 105 when a pickup truck driven by Ramon Polanco of Cleveland, Texas, crossed the center line and entered the lane the students were driving in.
Authorities say the pickup driver crossed the highway near Goode City Road. The vehicle carrying the students swerved to try to avoid the pickup , but both vehicles collided head-on.
The impact was so violent that paramedics had to cut two of the students out of the car. It took a total of 30 minutes to get everyone out of the mangled mess.
Two people involved in the crash -- 22-year-old Akshay Jain and 24-year-old Ishan Bajaj -- were flown to Memorial Hermann Hospital in very critical condition.
On Monday, Local 2 news spoke exclusively to the roommates of Pranav Kannan, the driver of the car in which the the students were riding in. They said Pranav is a chemical engineering student at A&M's Dwight Look College of Engineering and was returning from Louisiana after the Thanksgiving holiday.
As of Monday night, Pranav was doing better and was listed in stable condition, according to his roommates.
One of the most difficult things about the accident is that most of the parents of the students live in foreign countries. They are far away and very worried.
As for the driver of the pickup truck, he has not been arrested or charged in connection with the accident.
DPS is still investigating the crash and will turn over all its findings to the Montgomery County district attorney's office.
