ORONO – Two mothers, their four children and another young woman set out on Sunday from Portland in a sport utility vehicle rented from Portland International Jetport.

The group stopped at McDonald’s to pick up Happy Meals and other food. They listened to reggae and popular rhythm and blues CDs along the way. They were headed north on Interstate 95, but never reached their destination, which Maine State Police said Monday was still unknown.

All seven were killed suddenly when the driver of the SUV – whose license had been suspended since 1998 – made an illegal pass at speeds over 90 mph in the breakdown lane near the Carmel exit at mile marker 171. The SUV clipped another car as it re-entered the travel lane and rolled over 1 1/2 times before coming to rest in a patch of trees in the median.

One child and one young woman – who were wearing seat belts – were trapped in the vehicle with two other unbelted children. The two mothers and one child were ejected from the SUV. The four young children and three women were all dead at the scene, state police said during a press conference at the Orono police barracks.

Maine State Police on Monday identified the victims of the Sunday accident, the worst to occur on a Maine public road in more than 45 years.

“This ties the deadliest crash on a Maine public road since 1958,” Lt. Wesley Hussey, Troop E commander in Orono, said Monday.

“When something this tragic happens, we always look at ways we can re-evaluate our coverage,” Hussey said, noting there are long stretches of I-95 state troopers are responsible for covering.

Killed were: Hope Gagnon, 29, of South Portland – believed to be the vehicle’s driver; Gagnon’s three children, Deion Stuart, 8, Tkeyah Stuart, 6, and Ariana Stuart, 4; Kelley Armstrong, 28, of South Portland, and her son Kristian Smith, 4; and the third woman, Danielle St. Paulin, 29, of South Portland.

Gagnon, her daughter Ariana, and Kelley Armstrong were thrown from the vehicle.

Gagnon’s two other children, Deion and Tkeyah, were trapped inside the vehicle, as were Smith and St. Paulin.

Investigators initially believed only two occupants were trapped inside, but then they found two more bodies trapped beneath the vehicle.

Gagnon’s license was suspended in 1998 for an administrative violation, Maine State Police spokesman Stephen McCausland said. She had failed to pay a fine for a previous suspension. Armstrong, who rented the car, did have a valid Maine license.

“A lot of work still needs to be done as to retracing their footsteps and trying to determine what happened and why,” McCausland said.

Maine Department of Transportation workers on Monday morning finished clearing the accident scene. The bodies were removed Sunday night and taken to a funeral home in Bangor. DOT personnel found evidence of food from McDonald’s, a few music CDs and several shoes at the site. Trees lay fallen, some as a result of the accident, others when DOT workers used chain saws to extract the SUV. Evidence flags remained, marking spots where victims were found.

The Explorer was taken on Sunday to the state police crime lab in Augusta and will be examined and inventoried today, McCausland said. It is hoped that investigators will be able today to determine where the vehicle was headed.

“We don’t know where they were going at this time,” said Hussey. “We’ve only had preliminary conversations with family members for obvious reasons, and haven’t been able to determine the destination.”

The exact cause of the accident has not been determined, state police said. Minutes before the accident, at least one witness saw the Explorer pulled over on the shoulder of the highway about two miles south of the accident scene, Hussey said.

The witness told police it appeared as though the vehicle’s occupants were switching drivers.

“You can speculate forever,” the state police lieutenant said. “We don’t name fault in cases like this; we gather facts.”

The vehicle was rented from a Hertz distributor at about 12:15 p.m. Sunday at Portland International Jetport, Hussey said. It was due back there Monday.

Hussey pointed out that children ages 4 to 8, or children under 80 pounds, are required by state law to be in a booster seat. No booster seats were used in the Explorer, he said.

Nikki Yawn, 19, of Bangor was driving the 2004 Jeep Cherokee that was clipped in the accident. Police said Yawn was trying to pass another vehicle, driven by Jamie Atkinson, 21, of Etna, when the Explorer came up behind them.

Neither Yawn nor Atkinson was injured. Yawn’s vehicle had only minor damage. Attempts to reach Yawn for comment Monday were unsuccessful.

Traffic was backed up in the northbound lanes of I-95 for about seven hours, Hussey said. Cars stretched as far back as 10 miles as state police rerouted traffic southbound through a turnaround near the site of the accident. The northbound lanes opened up at 10 p.m. Sunday.

The crash was the deadliest on a Maine public road since seven occupants of a car were killed when it was broadsided and run over by a tractor-trailer in Richmond on Sept. 5, 1958.

The state’s worst crash ever occurred on a privately owned logging road Sept. 12, 2002, when 14 migrant workers perished when their van went off a bridge in the Allagash Wilderness Waterway.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.