Two adults and a six-year-old boy are dead, and three members of their family were hospitalized, following a Saturday morning crash during the Calgary family’s trip to Houston, Texas to visit relatives.

Upinderjit and Jasleen Minhas were travelling through Texas with their three children and Upinderjit’s mother, Nirmal Kaur Minhas, when tragedy struck.

Officials with the Texas Department of Public Safety say the crash occurred shortly before 7:00 a.m. Saturday at a location approximately 23 miles (37 kilometres) northwest of the city of Amarillo. According to the department, the Minhas’ minivan was travelling south on RM 1061 when it entered a northbound lane of the undivided road and collided with an oncoming Peterbilt transport truck.

The crash claimed the lives of 68-year-old Nirmal Mehar Minhas and her six-year-old grandson Mehar Partap Minhas who were both pronounced dead at the scene of the crash.

Upinderjit Singh, the 38-year-old driver of the minivan, was taken to hospital where he succumbed to his injuries that same night.

The family’s 10-year-old daughter suffered a serious spinal injury and was airlifted to UMC Lubbock in Lubbock, Texas where she has undergone several surgeries.

Jasleen Minhas and her eight-year-old daughter were transported from the scene to Northwest Texas Hospital in non-life threatening condition. The eight-year-old has since been released from hospital.

Several friends and relatives of the Minhas family have made their way from Calgary and Toronto to Texas to be with Jasleen and her daughters. The youngest daughter has been released from hospital.

“Everyone is really shocked,” said Avi Jaswal. “They were going there just to enjoy. Jasleen’s family lives there.”

“The whole community is really saddened by it. Even in India, the (news) just got there so fast."

The driver of the commercial truck, a 57-year-old man from Amarillo, was transported to hospital with non-life threatening conditions.

Avi Jaswal, a relative, says the family had elected to travel at night during their trip in an attempt to avoid the midday Texas heat. She says the loss of the family members has been devastating and she holds fond memories of all three.

“Upinderjit, he was the life of the party,” says Jaswal of the man affectionately known as ‘Happy’ who would have celebrated his 39th birthday in the coming days. “He was always happy and he always tried to help everyone.”

Jaswal says Nirmal was ‘such a wonderful lady’ and six-year-old Mehar was ‘a cute kid’ who adored his older sisters and would constantly follow them around.

A funeral will be held in Texas on the weekend of July 21 to honour the lives of Upinderjit, Nirmal and Mehar. A service will take place at the Sikh temple in Calgary in the coming weeks.

With files from CTV’s Shaun Frenette