CHIKAMING TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) &045; Three Minnesota State University, Mankato, students died and five other people riding in the same van were injured when the vehicle crossed a freeway median and collided with two oncoming semitrailers.

At least one of the injured students was in critical condition Tuesday, said Michael Cooper, media relations director at the southern Minnesota university.

&uot;We really are devastated by it,&uot; Cooper said. &uot;We’re in shock, and obviously our hearts go out to the families.&uot;

The group, which included seven students and one faculty member, was headed to Detroit to compete in a Society of Automotive Engineers student competition. The crash took place in Berrien County’s Chikaming Township in southwest Lower Michigan.

Township Police Officer George Knoll said the van was heading eastbound on Interstate 94 about 2:30 p.m. CDT when a trailer it was pulling began to fishtail, causing the driver to lose control of the vehicle. The van crossed the median and rolled several times into the path of westbound traffic and the two semis were unable to avoid hitting it, Knoll said.

Two of the students in the van were pronounced dead at the scene and a third was pronounced dead at an area hospital, Knoll said.

The rest of the van’s occupants were taken to Lakeland Hospital in St. Joseph, where one was in the critical care unit, one was in surgery late Tuesday and one was being treated in the emergency room, said a nursing supervisor who would not give her name. Two others in the van were treated and released, she said.