CANTON TOWNSHIP, Mich., July 9, 2009
5 Teens Die in Train-Car Crash in Mich.
Amtrak Train Strikes Car at Road Crossing, Killing All Five in Sedan
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The crash occurred around 12:30 p.m. in the Wayne County community of Canton Township, about 20 miles west of Detroit. (CBS)
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Emergency medical technicians leave the scene in Canton Township, Mich., Thursday, July 9, 2009 where an Amtrak passenger train carrying about 150 people struck a car at a road crossing near Detroit killing all five people in the sedan, authorities said. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)
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Police Sgt. Mark Gajeski says the victims were a 14-year old girl and four boys aged 17 and 18, reports CBS Radio station WWJ in Detroit.
The crossing has a gate and flashing lights that were believed to be working when the car approached, said Gajeski, a police spokesman. Based on witness accounts, police suspect the people in the sedan tried to go around the gate and were hit, he said.
"It looks like they probably did go around the arm. They went around the gate," Gajeski said.
The bodies remained in the black Ford more than three hours after the crash while the investigation was ongoing, Gajeski said. He said the train typically travels about 67 miles per hour at the site.
The crash occurred around 12:30 p.m. in the Wayne County community of Canton Township, about 20 miles west of Detroit, said police Sgt. Craig Wilsher. Wilsher said the vehicle was heading north when it crossed the train tracks and was hit. Gajeski said the car was pushed about a mile from one road crossing to another.
The only reported medical problem among the approximately 170 people on the train was a case of a passenger with asthma, he said.
The train was headed from Detroit to Chicago, said Marc Magliari, a Chicago-based Amtrak spokesman.
"There is every indication the train crew was doing exactly what it should have been doing and that there was no malfunction of the train," he said. "They can't make vehicles, or pedestrians for that matter, heed signals."
"This is tragic for both the family of those who died and the train crew," he said.
Around 3:40 p.m., the five passenger cars and rear engine of Amtrak train 353 pulled away from the engine involved in the crash. The front engine was to remain at the scene during the investigation while the rest of the train returned to the Dearborn station.
Buses will take the passengers to the Ann Arbor station, where they will catch a later train to Chicago, Magliari said. While the passengers waited to leave, the rear engine of the train was kept running so the air conditioning and bathrooms worked.
The train - which has a front and rear engine and five passenger cars - was stopped near a landfill and a wooded area. The mangled sedan was pushed against the front of the train and investigators covered it with greenish-gray tarp.
There is a warning device with a flashing light and gates at the crossing where the crash occurred, said Rudy Husband, a spokesman for Norfolk Southern Corp., which owns the track. Husband said he couldn't say if the device was working at the time of the crash. That will be part of the investigation, he said.
Last year, 119 people died in Amtrak accidents, usually when trains struck vehicles or pedestrians at railroad crossings, according to figures from the Federal Railroad Administration.
The National Transportation Safety Board hasn't yet decided whether to investigate the crash, spokesman Keith Holloway said.
"Preliminary information indicates that there was no derailment, there were no fatalities on board the Amtrak" train, he said. "We don't always investigate grade-crossing accidents."
Jennifer Talley was one of about 30 passengers waiting at the Ann Arbor station to board the train involved in the crash.
Around 12:30 p.m., when the train was supposed to pull in, "they announced there was going to be a delay and they didn't know how long it would be, and it was right after that they told us it was an accident," said Talley, 36, a librarian at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor who was headed to Chicago.
The waiting passengers, including Talley, boarded another train about two hours later, she said.
© MMIX, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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See all 38 CommentsEmpathy for the engineer and his family.
Bet they won't do THAT again!
"Buses will take the passengers to the Ann Arbor station, ...the rear engine of the train was kept running so the air conditioning and bathrooms worked."
And what the hel1 do we care to read the details about the passenger's bathroom and air conditioner status??
People using the car to multitask while driving,
Playing the music so loud the driver can't hear whats around him/her.
Teens may show off.
This is the time to teach safe driving habits so this does not have to happen.
Going by the article it is clear the young driver was not oberying the rule of the road. The saddest thing was the car mates died at the driver's hands as did the driver. The lesson is ye can never beat a train and so don't even try. Their loved do read these boards. Young people think this will not happen to them but it does. Some are risk takers. This is not cool. I told my sighted friend I do not walk the tracks. They have too many cars on the road. The article saids there was a 14 year old girl and 4 boys aged 17 and 18. In the car. Big trucks can't stop on a dime. The train is not the blame. The gate and flashing lights are there for a reason. That gate goes accross the road to stop others from crossing when they should not. Let noy beat the train.
that mad bad comment
I knew them. thats not even right?
i'm not sure teens SHOULD be driving!!!
"5 teens killed trying to beat Amtrak train at Canton Twp. crossing."
The article goes on to claim that witnesses saw the sedan drive around the crossing guard. So John_Merrit was right after all but as far as I'm concerned, unless he dug a little deeper his was a lucky guess.
We now have grieving parents, upset engineers and what is now going through the minds of those folks immediately behind the sedan who witnessed this mother-of-all t-bones, I can not imagine.
Those kids acted very foolishly, but stupidity shouldn't carry such a drastic penalty and my heart goes out to all of those affected. I can not count the number of times I took even more outrageous risks when I was their age - and much older. I was lucky, I guess; these kids certainly were not. I will reserve judgement and wise posters should do the same.
For all we know, the four passengers begged the driver not to do it but he did it anyway. The fact that the actions of one kid cost the lives of all five is truly tragic. My heartfelt condolences to the families and the train crew. My husband worked with a truck driver who hit a woman's car broadside when she pulled out in front of him. He still dreams about watching her eyes explode as they collided. It's the sort of thing that is very difficult to get over.
You people ought to be ashamed of yourselves! How dare you talk so flippantly over a tragedy like this. What if it were your loved ones in that car? How would you feel reading these insensitive comments while you're grieving? You people have no heart whatsoever.
IF THE SOB IS BEGGER THAN YOU STAY OUT OF ITS WAY.
BTW -- I also have plenty of compassion for folks who use their heads and don't do dumb things like trying to beat a train to the crossing. I save my compassion for flood victims and abused animals, who deserve my sympathy and support. If you keep sticking up for people who won't help themselves then it's likely you will end up like them, too.
And do not be too hard on the posters. I think the summer heat and the general hype in our media and politicians today makes us all short tempered. I for one am tired of the victimization in society.
Nothing is ever the fault of democrats. Just look at CA budget issues. It always has been, is and always will be the fault of the republicans in this country.
My condolences to the train engineer and the families of the victims.
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