Van With 3 Kids Inside Crashes Through NW Miami Building

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MIAMI (CBSMiami) – A huge hole marked the spot where a van, with three kids insides, crashed into a building Thursday afternoon.

It's not clear how or why the driver lost control of the van, but police say it all started a few blocks away.

"The officer saw the vehicle and activate the overhead lights for a traffic stop. The car fled," said Miami Police Major Esther Farmer. "When (the officer) got over the bridge, the vehicle had crashed into the building."

Police didn't say what traffic law the driver may have broken, only that they took him into custody shortly after the wreck.

A woman in tears over what happened came with a relative to pick up the van's passengers – three young children who told their aunt simply "the van is broken."

"I'm quite sure by the damage to the wall, that if it happened to my car, I would have been kind of shaken up," said the children's aunt, Jameelah Ahmad.

She said the kids were scared, but safe.

"The kids were strapped in. They had their seatbelts. Their car seats. Blessed," she said.

This building, sitting on the corner of Northwest 7th Avenue and 43rd Street, was locked up at the time of the crash, but a man who said his brother rented the space for a future business was there Thursday night to patch up the hole.

As of Thursday evening, police had not released the name of the driver or what charges, if any, he might be facing.