UPDATE: Two dead in multi-vehicle accident on Sussex Highway

10/7 UPDATE: Delaware State Police have identified the victims in this crash as 22-year-old Eric Staley of Fayetteville, North Carolina, and 18-year-old Makayla Belton of Willow Grove, Pennsylvania.

We’re told Belton was a student at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, while Staley was an unenrolled student, according to the school.

UMES President Heidi Anderson released the following statement regarding the crash:

“We grieve the loss of our UMES students and pray for the other students hurt have a full recovery. This tragedy has taken two promising young people at the very start of their adult lives and deprived our Hawk community, their families and friends of the dynamic futures they were poised to live.”

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SEAFORD, Del. – Two people were killed in a two-vehicle crash in Seaford early Sunday morning.

According to Delaware State Police, at roughly 1:35 a.m. a Nissan Rogue was traveling south on Sussex Highway in the left lane.

At the same time, a Honda Pilot was traveling north but in the same southbound left lane as the Nissan Rogue when the cars reportedly hit each other head-on.

Two passengers in the Rogue were pronounced dead at the scene, a 22-year-old man from Fayetteville, North Carolina, and an 18-year-old woman from Willow Grove, Pennsylvania. Their identities are being withheld pending family notification.

The Rogue’s driver, a 22-year-old man from Washington, D.C., and the other passenger, an 18-year-old woman from Bethesda, Maryland, were both taken to a local hospital with critical injuries.

The driver of the pilot, a 24-year-old man, and its passenger, a 40-year-old man, both from Georgetown, Delaware, were taken to area hospitals with serious injuries.

Police suspect that impairment was a factor in the crash.

The Delaware State Police Troop 7 Collision Reconstruction Unit continues to investigate the accident. Anyone who witnessed the incident is asked to contact Master Corporal K. Argo at 302-703-3264.