(November 3, 2025 – Milladore, WI)
Two Wisconsin motorists were seriously injured on Monday afternoon after their vehicle was struck by a train on November 3, 2025, at approximately 2 p.m. The devastating collision occurred on Mayflower Road in Wood County, just off County Highway P’s intersection with the Wisconsin Central Ltd. (WC) tracks.
The two victims were later identified as 70-year-old La Verne Robert Kloos, driver, and 68-year-old Cindy Lou Kloos, passenger, of Stratford, Wisconsin. According to the Wood County Sheriff’s Department, “The truck was traveling northbound on Mayflower Road and parked for a railroad crossing prior to Hwy P.” However, their vehicle was stationed too close to the tracks and was struck by a passing train. In the aftermath, the Kloos’s were transported to Marshfield Medical Center, where the driver was treated and eventually released. The passenger remained in serious condition at least up to November 4.
According to Wisconsin Central’s submitted records, the subject railroad crossing sees an average of 15 day and 15 night trains, which travel at speeds of up to 60 miles per hour. At least one other collision occurred at the crossing—one that also resulted in motorist injury. The public crossing is uncontrolled and completely devoid of gate arms, lights, and bells. Moreover, the only passive traffic controls that the WC crossing has present are two crossbuck assemblies and two yield signs. The crossing offers only no active warning protection for oncoming motorists, despite there being a dense wall of trees obscuring much of the view down the length of the tracks for drivers traveling northbound on Mayflower Rd.
The crash occurred just a month after a Wisconsin man was fatally injured after his vehicle was struck by a Canadian National Railway train on the morning of October 3. The two collisions join the more than 19 collision involving trains hitting vehicles and/or pedestrians at gated crossing that have occurred in Wisconsin since the end of July.
The collision remains under investigation.