Young family dies on I-80 while traveling to Colorado for missionary training

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The five people killed Sunday in a fiery crash on Interstate 80 have been identified as a young family from St. Paul, Minnesota, that was heading to Colorado for missionary training.

The family was driving through Nebraska and about 16 miles from the Colorado state line when they were struck by a semitrailer, the Omaha World-Herald reports.

Jamison Pals and his wife, Kathryne, both 29, and their three children — 3-year-old Ezra; Violet, who was almost 2; and 2-month-old Calvin — were killed in the wreck, according to the World-Herald.

The family was on its way to Littleton for a month of missionary training with the Christian organization WorldVenture, as a family member told the Nebraska newspaper. In the fall, they were going to move to Japan.

Six people in other vehicles were taken to a rural Nebraska hospital after the wreck. Three of them were later flown to Colorado hospitals.

The truck driver from Baker, Florida, was arrested on suspicion of motor vehicle homicide following the collision. He was treated at a hospital in Julesburg, in northeast Colorado.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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