http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28278606
She should have gotten out of the car before calling 911.
A much better story with more information is in this story from the OC Register site. It has some interesting information about this “quiet zone” crossing and how they had had a gate malfunction the day before which was attributed to a communications system failure which caused the gates to go down for a period of time. This is what they are supposed to do; fail safe operation by design.