UPDATED: 3:05 p.m.
The victims, both boys ages 7 and 9, were riding with their parents when another car hit them and flung the kids from their car.
The children were rushed to St. Christopher's Hospital, but pronounced dead a short time later.
The children's father refused medical treatment in order to be with his sons. Their mother was taken to a different hospital with a spinal fracture and facial wounds. She is expected to be okay.
“It’s sad because kids are our future and nowadays we are just losing them to nonsense,” Shirley Davila told NBC 10.
“Kids probably had a future, become something in life and look (at) what happens to them right before school starts,” she lamented. “They’re gone.”
Police say it happened around 12:30 a.m. Sunday near the intersection of Kensington Avenue and Hunting Park Avenue, right under the Market-Frankford Line tracks.
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Davila saw what happened and was shocked, but says that intersection is “famous for hits.”
“I heard a loud boom, as usual,” she explained. “And then my apartment totally shakes. (I) came out here and saw a family of three. The kids were ejected out the back, the other vehicle ran off. By the time I went to the scene, the kids were on the ground, totally gone.”
The driver and passenger of the striking vehicle got out on foot, according to police. The driver was arrested about a half-mile away. He faces two counts of third-degree murder, among other charges.
Police are investigating the traffic signal for each car.
The identities of the victims and the person in custody have not been released at this time.