HAMMOND | Two children died Saturday morning after a minivan filled with a mom and her four children were struck by two freight trains at a busy residential crossing.

The 32-year-old mother, Edie Bolanos, and her other two children were still listed in critical condition Saturday night after being flown to Chicago hospitals.

Crystal Bolanos, 11, and Anahi Bolanos, 8, were pronounced dead at the scene from multiple blunt-force trauma by the Lake County coroner's office.

The crash occurred about 10 a.m. at the CSX railroad crossing at Johnson Avenue and Hudson Street, six blocks from the Hammond home where the family lives in the 200 block of East Hanover Street.

"They were pretty nice people. They would invite us over to play," said Richard Zacarias, 12, a neighbor of the family.

Authorities said the mom and children were southbound on Johnson when their Mercury minivan was struck by a train heading west. The van was then pushed onto the eastbound tracks, where a second train hit it.

Two of the children were ejected from the van and were dead when police arrived. The van was crumpled on the driver's side and pushed about 30 feet west of Johnson. Smashed bicycle parts and children' shoes were strewn about.

The eastbound train blocked traffic for about three hours Saturday as police investigated the crash.

The crossing is protected by flashing lights, but it's not equipped with guard arms that lower when a train is approaching. Several neighbors complained that the dangerous intersection should be protected with guard arms.

"Hammond needs to do something about putting gates up," said Margarita Vargas, 24, who lives between the CSX tracks and the nearby South Shore Line tracks. "I've seen quite a few people almost get hit by the train."

Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. could not be reached for comment Saturday.

Other residents like Ben Wagner said it's common to see cars speed up to try to beat the trains.

Hammond police Sgt. Michael Jorden and CSX spokesman Garrick Francis said the flashing lights appeared to have been working at the time of the crash.

Francis said it was not clear how fast the trains were traveling, but they would have been authorized to be going 40 mph in that area.

"It's a very busy line for us, in and out of Chicago," Francis said.

The westbound train that hit the van first was carrying 12 intermodal semitrailer containers bound for Chicago, and the eastbound train had 138 cars bound for Cumberland, Md., Francis said.

Thirteen people were reported killed at Indiana railroad crossings in 2006, making it the seventh deadliest state in the nation for train crossings, according to statistics from the Federal Railroad Administration. A total of 136 cars were hit by trains in Indiana last year.

At 2 p.m. Saturday, the CSX warning gates at Hohman Avenue came down as engineers were testing the warning signals at Johnson Avenue, just two blocks down.

After the gates came down six vehicles drove around the lowered arms, just an hour after the train that killed two people was cleared from the same tracks.