Driver expected to recover after car crashes into train
A freight train goes through the intersection Friday morning. A car crashed into a train at the same crossing earlier in the day.
Kyle Feldscher | AnnArbor.com
Editor's note: This article has been updated with additional information from police and firefighters.
- Previous story: Woman hospitalized after car-train crash in Ann Arbor Township
A woman is expected to recover after her car crashed into a train in Ann Arbor Township early Friday.
The 23-year-old Livonia woman was driving a 2006 Ford Focus on Pontiac Trail about 4:30 a.m. when she came upon the railroad crossing north of M-14 and south of Warren Road, said Washtenaw County sheriff’s Sgt. Geoffrey Fox.
“A train was on the tracks, and she basically drove right into the train,” Fox said. No one on the train, believed to be a freight train, noticed the crash and the train proceeded on its way, Fox said.
About 6 a.m., another train or possibly the same train, came through the crossing, and someone on that train noticed the woman’s car in a ditch not far away from the tracks, Fox said.
Ann Arbor Township firefighters, Washtenaw County sheriff’s deputies and Huron Valley Ambulance paramedics rushed to the scene and discovered the woman was pinned in the vehicle. The driver was alert and talking. She was freed from the wreckage and taken to the University of Michigan Hospital, where she’s expected to recover, Fox said.
It’s not clear why the woman drove into the train, Fox said. The railroad crossing has signals but no gate. Neither alcohol nor drugs appear to be involved, he said.
Information about the direction of travel of the car and train was not available, but firefighters said the car was on the west side of the railroad tracks.
Pontiac Trail was closed for more than an hour as police investigated the crash.
View Car-train crash in a larger map
Comments
Major
Fri, Sep 21, 2012 : 2:27 p.m.
I sure hope the young lady will be ok, that had to be one heck of terrifying ride!! I'm wondering if that's why the 1337 was laying on it's horn all the way through town this morning,
Alaina Case
Fri, Sep 21, 2012 : 2:35 p.m.
I actually signed on to aa.com specifically to see if there was some reason the horn was blasting the entire way though town.. I am glad the woman is OK!
bunnyabbot
Fri, Sep 21, 2012 : 2:25 p.m.
geez people, the woman could have had a seizure or something
Unusual Suspect
Fri, Sep 21, 2012 : 2:27 p.m.
Sorry, but you're not allowed to speculate on the cause.
music to my ear
Fri, Sep 21, 2012 : 2:13 p.m.
She is very lucky, her family could have been planing her funeral today lucky.
nickcarraweigh
Fri, Sep 21, 2012 : 2:06 p.m.
Many psychologists might tell you over-the-top aversion therapy like this makes it highly unlikely the young woman will ever, ever repeat whatever she was doing just before she ran into a parked train; so I hope no overzealous prosecutor adds to her woes, at least until she gets out of the hospital. But you do have to wonder where you take a locomotive for a bump-and-paint job.
Unusual Suspect
Fri, Sep 21, 2012 : 2:26 p.m.
They probably wouldn't. The AAR is a small operation and apparently very budget-minded. They didn't even paint those engines after they bought them, except just enough to cover the previous owner's name.
Craig Lounsbury
Fri, Sep 21, 2012 : 1:57 p.m.
we need a law that says a car at the edge of the tracks is presumed to want to cross the tracks and the train should then stop and yield to the cars intent.....that should solve everything.
justcurious
Fri, Sep 21, 2012 : 1:46 p.m.
Very interesting. I hope that she is able to recover fully.