The crash occurred about 45 miles west of Cincinnati and involved six students from South Ripley High School in the small community of Versailles, Sgt. Noel Houze said. The students had just left a Future Farmers of America event at a rural church when at least one of the drivers ran a stop sign, he said.
A dual-wheel Dodge truck hit a smaller Ford F-150 in the driver's side door. One girl and two boys died at the scene, Houze said. The three other students were taken to University Hospital in Cincinnati, but Houze didn't know how seriously they were hurt. He said three students were in each truck, and people in each vehicle died.
None of the victims' names has been released. Their high school has about 370 students.
The fatal crash was the latest in handful of recent tragedies in Versailles, a town of only about 2,000 people. In the last year, an 18-year-old girl died after crashing her car while texting, a 15-year-old girl was killed in an ATV accident last May, and a beloved teacher died in a plane crash in January. Fatal tornadoes also ripped through the town last March.
"These are all very, very tight communities and everyone knows everyone," said Katherine Taul, director of the Ripley County Tourism Bureau. "So even if you weren't directly connected or related to them, it still touches everybody."
"Our community's been hit by so many sad things lately," Taul added.
