Car, train collide on city street

After two near-misses with trains at a railroad crossing just blocks from her home in Mitchell, Christine Thornton wasn’t so lucky Friday morning.

Thornton’s vehicle struck the side of a train as the train was backing up across the intersection on West Eighth Avenue shortly before 8 a.m. With the glare of the sun on her windshield and no signals at the crossing other than a sign, Thornton, 38, said she didn’t see the Burlington Northern Santa Fe train until it was too late.

“There was no sign, no warning, nothing — and when I looked up that train was on me,” she said. “If I wouldn’t have been driving the biggest vehicle I could possibly drive, if I had been going faster, I don’t think I would have walked away.”

According to Officer Russ Stevenson, of the city’s Police Division, the train’s conductor was backing up the train when the collision occurred. A worker who was helping the train reverse reported the crossing clear of traffic when he last checked.

Thornton was traveling about 25 mph. Rescue workers guessed her vehicle was dragged 20 feet upon impact.

She had experienced two near-misses with trains in the same crossing in the past. Thornton said sometimes a train lingers in the crossing at night while being loaded with grain at the nearby elevator. With no streetlights at the spot, a train can be difficult to spot when it’s pitch black, she said.

“If it’s going to be that way you need some kind of bell or light — something to warn people,” Thornton said. “It’s a horrible train intersection.”

All public crossings in the United States are required to be marked by at least a crossbuck — an X-shaped railroad crossing sign. As traffic on the road crossing or the rail crossing increases, safety features are increased accordingly.

According to Tim Bjormeberg of the South Dakota Department of Transportation, a number of factors must be considered before a railroad crossing is signalized, or receives a flashing red light to indicate when a train is approaching. Factors include amount of traffic on the road, possible obstructions to drivers, accident history of the road and speed limits. Signalizing an intersection costs an average of $20,000, 90 percent of which is funded by the federal government, Bjormeberg said.

Thornton was in a 2005 Chevy Suburban, which suffered heavy damage to the front end. She was transferred to Avera Queen of Peace Hospital and released Friday morning with minor injuries and whiplash.

No tickets or citations were issued.

Mitchell has at least five spots where railroad tracks cross city streets, but not all of them are equipped with flashing lights or a warning signal.

Sgt. Scott Walton, who has been with the Mitchell Police Division for more than 15 years, doesn’t recall another car-train crash in Mitchell in his tenure.

Tags: news, accident, car, train