Unusual circumstances at a signaled railroad crossing in Pulaski, County, Ar. on Sunday evening. Two cars in a Union Pacific freight train, jumped the track (derailed?) and mashed a car waiting at the crossing, flat.
Article and video linked:
http://www.todaysthv.com/news/article/149674/2/Breaking-News-Train-derailment-in-Wrightsville-1-person-dead
The above information liink is from TV Station KTHV. The official details have not been released. The possible causes are/were a derailment (cause?), or two empty boxcars spontaneously jumped the track, and rolled onto the waiting auto. Or the car ran into the train and derailed the cars(?)
The video shows the car after it was extracted by lifting the boxcar off the auto;which was pretty much pancaked with the unfortunate occupant trapped in the auto.
A story was also in the TRAINSNewswire for 03/21/2011 as well.
The news clip video put a slightly different twist than what the Trains Newswire reported.
However, from today’s newspaper, I get the feeling the motorist was stopped and the train derailed into him and not the other way around.
http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2011/mar/21/driver-killed-train-derailment-identified/
Should be interesting to find out the facts …
After readin some additional stories on this incident, there were apparently a total of five cars that derailed in this incident. There were two boxcars directly derailed at the crossing, and two boxcars on their sides, one of which fell on approximately the front two-thirds of a Ford Focus, crushing it, trapping, and killing a 60 year old male in the car.
http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2011/mar/22/fatal-derailment-called-rare-20110322/
The link is to a story from Arkansaw On-Line and references a UPRR Spokesperson on the incident.
“…Fatal derailment called ‘rare’ . Union Pacific, state looking into accident, prevention of a repeat…” By Aprille Hanson
FTA: “…A lot of people who I work with, they can’t recall something like this happening. This is a rare situation,” Raquel Espinoza said.
“This is a tragic accident that we deeply regret …"