CANTON TOWNSHIP, Mich. – An Amtrak passenger train carrying about 170 people struck a car that had skirted a gate at a road crossing near Detroit on Thursday, killing all five people in the sedan, authorities said. The victims were believed to be teens.
The crossing has a gate and flashing lights that apparently were working when the car approached, said Sgt. Mark Gajeski, a police spokesman. Based on witness accounts, "it looks like they probably did go around the arm. They went around the gate," Gajeski said.
The crash occurred around 12:30 p.m. in Canton Township, about 20 miles west of Detroit, said police Sgt. Craig Wilsher. He said the vehicle was heading north when it crossed the train tracks and was struck. The train typically travels about 67 miles per hour at the site of the crash, Gajeski said.
"All of a sudden, there was a thunk," said Alice McCardell, 45, of Dearborn, who was taking the train to a library conference in Chicago. "You knew you hit something but you didn't know what."
The car was broadsided and pushed down the tracks. It was crumpled underneath the front of the train and ended up right-side up, its roof and front crushed.
Gajeski said the car was pushed about a mile from one road crossing to another.
James Reese, 59, of Royal Oak, who was taking the train to an Ann Arbor museum with his wife and grandson and was riding in the second car, said he felt a brief "surge" of the brakes but "no impact and no sound."
"We just knew something bad had happened when the engineer came on the loudspeaker and told us people had been hurt in the accident. Then he told us there were fatalities and we were very sad to hear that," Reese said after the train, which was headed from Detroit to Chicago, returned to the Dearborn station.
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