Five children and two adults were injured Friday morning in a three-vehicle crash on Columbus’ Northeast Side, at Morse Road and Sundance Drive, Columbus police said. The crash happened at about 7:15 a.m., Columbus police Sgt. James Fuqua said, according to The Columbus Dispatch.
Medics took the five children to Nationwide Children’s Hospital in critical condition, and the two adults were taken to a different hospital in critical condition, The Columbus Dispatch reported. By noon, three children and one adult remained in critical condition, while the others were in stable condition, Fuqua said, according to The Columbus Dispatch.
Police closed Morse Road in both directions at the crash site for a few hours Friday morning as detectives investigated, The Columbus Dispatch reported. The road closure affected the morning commute on one of the Northeast Side’s busiest east-west routes, between the Westerville and Sunbury road corridors.
The cause of the crash is under investigation, Fuqua said, according to The Columbus Dispatch. Police have not released the ages of the children, the identities of anyone involved, or which hospital treated the two adults, and no charges were announced by early Friday afternoon.
Morse Road carries heavy school-morning and commuter traffic, and Friday’s crash came during the busiest part of that morning flow. Drivers who use Morse Road to reach schools, workplaces and the Polaris and Easton areas were detoured while investigators documented the scene.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on
What we know: the crash involved three vehicles at Morse Road and Sundance Drive at about 7:15 a.m.; seven people were injured, five of them children; the children were taken to Nationwide Children’s Hospital; and by noon three children and one adult remained in critical condition, with the rest stable, according to Columbus police information reported by The Columbus Dispatch. What we are still waiting on: the cause of the crash, the identities and ages of those involved, and whether any charges will follow — all of which police said remain under investigation.
For families on the Northeast Side, the crash is a reminder of how quickly a routine school morning can change. Nationwide Children’s Hospital is the region’s pediatric trauma center, and it is where the most seriously injured children from crashes across central Ohio are routinely taken.
Columbus police detectives continued their investigation Friday, and Morse Road reopened after the scene was cleared. Anyone who saw the crash is typically asked in cases like this to contact Columbus police, though police had not issued a specific witness appeal by early afternoon.
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Friday morning is one of the most demanding times on Columbus’ Northeast Side roads. Morse Road links residential neighborhoods to Interstate 270, to the shopping and office corridors around Easton and Polaris, and to schools across the area, so a full closure in both directions quickly pushes traffic onto parallel routes and side streets.
That is why the few hours Morse Road stayed closed mattered beyond the crash scene itself. Detectives need an undisturbed scene to measure vehicle positions, document debris and reconstruct how a multi-vehicle crash unfolded, and that work cannot be rushed when children are among the seriously injured.
The conditions reported by police at noon — three children and one adult still critical, the rest stable — are the latest official update available for this story. Hospital conditions can change through the day, and police, not social media posts, are the source NewsForce247 is relying on for those updates, consistent with how Columbus police Sgt. James Fuqua provided the noon update to The Columbus Dispatch.
Neighbors and other drivers who were on Morse Road around 7:15 a.m. may have seen the moments before the crash even if they did not see the collision itself. In multi-vehicle investigations, that kind of timeline — which direction each vehicle was traveling, and in what order they arrived at Sundance Drive — is often central to determining a cause.
Sundance Drive is a residential street intersecting Morse Road on the Northeast Side, a stretch where neighborhood traffic merges with faster through traffic heading east and west. Crashes at intersections like this one are investigated for speed, signal or sign compliance, visibility and driver attention, though police have not said any of those factors played a role here.
Until police complete that work, the responsible thing for drivers is simple: expect investigators to take the time they need, give the families involved privacy, and watch for official updates rather than speculation about who was at fault or how seriously each person is hurt beyond what police have confirmed.
What happens next is the completion of the police investigation, including a determination of how the three vehicles collided. NewsForce247 will update this story when police release the cause, identities, or updated conditions.