'Hard to fathom': Seven family members killed in horror crash

A family of seven, including five young children, died on a remote road in a head-on collision on their way to a holiday.

Erika Carter Boquet, 29, was driving her 2016 Toyota 4 Runner eastbound on Oregon Highway 78 when an oncoming vehicle veered into her lane, authorities said.

Ms Boquet, of Tacoma, Washington, and her children Isabella, 11; Elisabeth, 8; and Tytis, 6, were killed on the way to a family holiday in Las Vegas, Ms Boquet’s brother, Jesse Tate, told The Associated Press.

Another relative and her two children also perished in the Monday crash. Mr Tate declined to name them because of the wishes of their immediate family.

“It’s a tragedy I wouldn’t wish on anyone else,” Mr Tate, 30, of Spanaway, Washington, told The Oregonian/OregonLive in an interview.

Oregon State Police listed the other victims as Kyla Marie Brown, 28; Arianna Marie Brown, 10; and two-year-old Xavier King Johnson.

Authorities did not provide details about the relationships between the victims.

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The driver and sole occupant of the other car, 48-year-old Mark Robert Rundell, of Prairie City, Oregon, also died.

The crash happened in a remote part of Oregon about 209 kilometres of the Idaho border.

Mr Tate first learned of it from relatives who contacted him on social media. He then called his father who told him who was involved, he said.

Ms Boquet volunteered at a Tacoma-based nonprofit she created called Last Stop that provides resources to low-income families.

Mr Tate said the group hosted an Easter egg hunt earlier this year and Ms Boquet hoped to have a backpack drive before the school year began. She aimed to one day build a park in Tacoma.

“She was outgoing, personable, made friends everywhere she went, and her kids took after her,” Mr Tate said.

“They all just cared about everyone around them.”

Ms Boquet’s grandfather Frank Williams described the woman as: “A beautiful person with three beautiful kids.”

“She was doing all she could to raise not only her kids but help the entire community of Tacoma,” Williams told WGNTV.

“It’s hard to fathom.”

A GoFundMe page to help bring the bodies home and pay funeral costs had raised more than double its goal of $10,000 on Wednesday.