Kansas City, Mo. ? A motor home packed with a Minnesota family and a handful of their friends crashed Sunday morning in northeast Kansas as they returned from a vacation, killing five people and sending 13 others to hospitals.

The Kansas Highway Patrol said the northbound vehicle was filled with 18 people and pulling a trailer when the driver lost control at 9 a.m. on Interstate 35. The vehicle hit a guardrail and a concrete bridge rail before crashing into a creek ravine near the small town of Williamsburg, which is located about 70 miles southwest of Kansas City, Mo. Debris was strewn around the crumpled Freightliner box truck, which had living quarters inside.

The survivors were sent to several surrounding hospitals. One of the hospitals, Overland Park Regional Medical Center, was treating Pauline Kerber, a 46-year-old widowed mother of 12 from Jordan, Minn., who was in critical but stable condition, and her 17-year-old son, Adam Kerber, who was in critical condition.

The hospital released a statement Sunday night on behalf of the family thanking the public for the “outpouring of love and support.”

“We appreciate the prayers of so many, and appreciate you respecting our privacy as we mourn our deep loss,” said the statement from the hospital, which also treated a critically injured 8-year-old boy before transferring him to a children’s hospital. By Sunday night, at least five of the victims had been released from other hospitals in Topeka, Olathe and Ottawa.

The crash is under investigation. Trooper Don Hughes said he couldn’t release the names, ages or hometowns of all of the victims because their relatives were still being notified.

But John Marks, a close family friend of the Kerbers, told The Star Tribune in Minneapolis that relatives had told him that the dead include four of the Kerber children and one adult woman.

Kirk Nelson, superintendent of Jordan public school district in Minnesota, said students had last week off for spring break, and were scheduled to return today.