CRASH KILLS LANCASTER GIRLS; FAMILY'S CAR HIT RETURNING HOME FROM HOLIDAY TRIP.

Byline: Greg Botonis and Charles F. Bostwick Daily News Staff Writer

Two Lancaster girls were killed and their mother and 10 brothers and sisters were injured when a big rig hit the vehicles in which the family was returning from a holiday visit in Utah, Utah authorities said.

Eight-year-old Katie Allen and 6-year-old Melanie Allen were killed instantly in the 3:40 a.m. Wednesday collision, which occurred while their mother was using her 1983 Buick station wagon to push a disabled pickup truck toward an off-ramp on Interstate 15.

``This is one of the worst I've seen,'' Utah Highway Patrol Trooper Jeff Bigler said.

The crash occurred about 7 miles outside Cedar City in temperatures Bigler estimated at 10 degrees below zero. A Greyhound bus stopped at the crash, and the passengers carried the injured into the bus, where they waited for ambulances.

Authorities said the bus passengers' actions probably saved the lives of several of the victims, who could have died from exposure.

Lori Allen, 35, of Lancaster; her 15-year-old son, Michael Harris; 18-year-old son, Rick Harris, and Rick's girlfriend, 18-year-old Charlene Eberhardt of Lancaster, were the most seriously injured of the survivors. They remained hospitalized in Valley View Medical Center in Cedar City.

The other eight children - ages 7 months to 17 years - are in a Cedar City motel with Lori Allen's husband, who came after being told of the crash, Bigler said.

The truck driver said he had taken his eyes off the road for a moment to reach for a cigarette, Bigler said. But investigators suspect he might have dozed off, Bigler said.

The trucker was cited for following too closely and for falsifying entries in his driving log.