A three-vehicle accident on Valencia Road in Richland Township sent five people to area hospitals Sunday afternoon.

The conditions of the people in the accident were not immediately known. The accident occurred north of Chessrown Avenue and just south of Aiken Auto Body.

A woman driving south on Valencia sideswiped a blue Saturn Vue XE  and then crashed head-on into a pickup truck, said Mel Aiken, who was at his auto body shop at the time of the crash.

He said he heard a kaboom, kaboom that sounded like lightning and thunder, then came out of the shop to see what happened and quickly called 911.

One car was smoking, so he ran back to the shop and got a fire extinguisher, he said.

"I didn't know if it would go up in flames before the fire department got here," he said.

Northern Regional Police were on the scene, but did not release information. Richland Volunteer Fire Department also was involved in the rescue effort.

Another source said a "jaws of life" tool was used to extricate the driver of one car.

All three cars were towed by Tom Henry Chevrolet. The car on which the jaws of life was used is a Toyota Rav4 and the pickup truck is a Chevrolet Colorado Z85.

Pine-Richland Patch will continue to update this story as information becomes available. Keep checking back.

Correction: Originally Pine-Richland Patch reported three people were taken to area hospitals. That number was updated to five after a report from Northern Regional Police Department was released Tuesday.