Niagara Police are investigating a head-on collision that left 3 people dead and 5 injured near Pelham, Ontario.

It was shortly after 1 a.m. on Friday, when two vehicles a red GMC Envoy SUV and a Pontiac Grand Am collided on Regional Road 24 and Highway 20. Police say there were four people traveling in each vehicle.

Niagara Regional Police Constable Rich Gadreau says one of the cars, the Grand AM, burst into flames upon impact, killing three of the four people inside.

Five people were rushed to Welland hospital, four of them with serious injuries. One person was airlifted from Welland to Hamilton hospital.

Jeff Youngblood, whose father was airlifted, says his parents and two of their friends were traveling in the other vehicle.

"He was driving the red Envoy, they had just left the Hamilton airport. They were away for a week in Calgary," says Youngblood.

He says his mother and her friends have been treated and released from hospital, but doesn't have an update on his father's condition.

Police are trying to figure out what direction the vehicles were traveling in before the collision happened. They're also looking at whether speed and alcohol are factors in the crash.