Members of a tight-knit First Nations community are mourning the loss of two young girls killed in a triple fatal crash near Caledonia on Wednesday night.

At around 9 p.m., a youth group from the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation were travelling home from laser tag in Hamilton when their vehicle was struck by a 21-year-old driver heading northbound on Highway 6 between 4th Line and 5th Line.

Police say the 21-year-old driver crossed the centre line and hit the van head-on.

The van left the roadway, entered a ditch and rolled over, police said.

Two girls, ages 12 and 14, were killed in the crash along with the driver of the other vehicle.

The 12-year-old girl was identified as Grace King, while the 14-year-old girl was identified as Waagosh Secord.

Six other people were taken to hospital with serious injuries, police confirmed Thursday.

The 21-year-old driver of the other vehicle was identified as Wyatt Martin. His uncle, Richard Martin, told CTV News that Martin was an iron worker who had been commuting back and forth from working on the Peace Bridge in Fort Erie. He had a young son and was expecting another child with his girlfriend this spring, his family said.

“We’re struggling. We’re hurt,” Richard Martin said. “We’re not only hurting for our family, we’re hurting for the other families who are involved in this because it’s tragic on the  other side as well so what we offer and what I offer is prayer for them as well.”

Investigators said Martin was a member of the Six Nations of the Grand River and the two girls were members of the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation.

“Our technical traffic collision investigators are assisting with the investigation,” Const. Ed Sanchuk told CP24 Thursday morning.

“We are in the early stages of the investigation and we are trying to piece together the puzzle, exactly what happened here. We have more questions than answers and we are going to hopefully have this investigative process completed so we can get those questions answered right away.”

Police say some witnesses remained at the scene to give statements to investigators.

“They are very upset about this as well,” Sanchuck said. “We are obviously getting them the needed help.”

A woman who lives in the area where the crash took place told CP24 she was running on her treadmill when she heard what sounded like a bomb go off.

She said she ran outside with her phone and called 911.

“Everybody converged on to the scene. There was people stopping on the side of the road,” she said.

“All we heard was children screaming.”

Sanchuck called the deadly collision “very traumatic” for first responders.

“We attended a meeting earlier tonight to discuss exactly what transpired tonight and it is very difficult for officers to obviously knock on someone’s door and tell them their loved ones are deceased,” he said.

“We live in a small community and our thoughts and prayers go out to all the family members.”

During a news conference Thursday morning, Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation Chief Stacey Laforme told reporters that the entire community is grieving the loss.

“We are so closely knit that all of our members are suffering,” he said.

Classes at the local elementary school were cancelled for the day as students, staff and community members deal with the tragedy.

“We have shut down our classes for the day. We are considering for tomorrow. The school remains open for the teachers and we have provided counsellors to them and to many of the community members as well,” Laforme said.

He added that the community centre is also open for any members of the community who want to talk.

We are trying to support each other,” he said.

“When we lose children… they are all our children."

Haldimand County Mayor Ken Hewitt told CP24 that the community is “devastated” by the crash.

“It’s shocking, it’s truly devastating to have something like this happen in a small community,” Hewitt said. “It brings everybody together but it’s not the way we want to come together. It’s an awful thing to happen.”

Hewitt said the county has lobbied the province to try and make the highway safer, as it has been the scene of a number of other serious collisions in the past. While driver error has sometimes caused collisions in the past, he said there’s still work that could be done to make the road safer.

“We believe that amount of truck traffic and the amount of traffic that flows through there would warrant a highway that’s not necessarily a small two-lane highway as it is today,” Hewitt said.