A violent, two-vehicle crash Saturday in Rush Township injured 11 people and required seven medical helicopters to respond to the scene.

According to Sgt. Duane Frederick, Rush Township Police, Jarih Martinez Fermin, 23, Summit Hill, was operating a 2014 Subaru Forester southbound on Claremont Avenue, Route 309, in an area known as the Mile Hill, six miles north of Tamaqua.Police said Fermin's vehicle crossed over the concrete median and entered the northbound lane where it collided with a 1999 Ford F350 passenger van operated by John Kurtz, 61, of East Fallowfield, Chester County.Police said the Kurtz van was traveling in the right-side lane of the four-lane highway when the Fermin vehicle crossed over and made contact.Both vehicles came to rest in the northbound lanes.The van was carrying ten people. Six of the passengers were airlifted to trauma centers. Four others in the van were transported to area hospitals by ambulance.Frederick said two passengers were minors, age 7 and 17. The oldest passenger was 33.Fermin also was airlifted to a trauma center, police said.Police indicated DUI might have played a role in the collision, which is under investigation.The 12:34 p.m. crash tied up traffic in both directions while victims were extricated, and as the accident scene was investigated, cleaned up, and vehicles towed away.It took responders more than one hour to free all of the victims from the wreckage.Residents nearby rushed to offer aid and at least one neighbor opened her doors to provide shelter to victims shivering in subfreezing air.Responding in addition to police were: Hometown Fire Company, Tamaqua Rescue Squad, Quakake Fire Company, McAdoo Fire Company EMS, Tamaqua Community Ambulance, Ryan Township Emergency Rescue and Hometown Fire Police.The various affiliations of the seven medical helicopters were not identified but some of the victims were taken to Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest and St. Luke's Hospital, Fountain Hill.Ambulances took others less seriously injured to St. Luke's Hospital-Miners Campus, Coaldale, and Lehigh Valley Hospital-Hazleton.In addition to rescue operations required at the scene, emergency responders from throughout the region were pressed into service to set up helicopter landing zones at a McAdoo ball field.Route 309 was closed for much of the afternoonThe vehicles were removed from the scene by Hope's Collision and Towing, Tamaqua.The crash happened near the border of Rush and Kline townships just below the curve on the Mile Hill near the intersection with Main Street, the road leading to Quakake.Police will have more information as the investigation progresses.