Another head-on collision sent four people to the hospital Thursday evening, two of them with injuries deemed critical by law enforcement personnel at the scene.

The crash happened on Morris Creek Road near its intersection with Reid Road in eastern Caldwell County sometime around 4 p.m.

According to the preliminary report from the North Carolina Highway Patrol, a Ford Truck appeared to cross left of center and struck a Honda passenger vehicle.

Master Trooper D.W. Church said a witness reported that the truck traveled left of the center line into the opposite lane. The truck was so far left of center that the driver of the Honda attempted to veer left in an attempt to avoid the crash, but the vehicles collided head-on in the middle of the roadway.

All four occupants - three in the truck, one in the car - were pinned inside the vehicles and had to be extricated by rescue personnel from Little River Fire Department.

Church said it is not clear why the driver of the truck allowed the vehicle to go left of center.

The male driver of the Honda and the female driver of the Ford suffered injuries Church said were called critical and were flown in separate helicopters to the trauma center in Johnson City, Tenn.

The other two passengers in the truck were the grandson and granddaughter of the driver. They both were taken to Frye Regional Medical Center in Hickory by Caldwell County EMS.

The names of the crash victims were not available. Updated conditions of the patients also were not available.