Second Train Discovers Female Motorist Trapped in Car after Collision with First Train
(Ann Arbor, Michigan – September 21, 2012)
A 23-year-old woman from Livonia, MI waited for help, trapped in her wrecked vehicle, for an hour and a half Friday morning at about 4:30 A.M., after her 2006 Ford Focus collided with the side of a Great Lakes Central freight train which kept on going, the crew allegedly unaware of the accident, at the non-gated crossing of Pontiac Trail and GLC tracks in Ann Arbor Township, MI.
The as-yet unidentified female had her vehicle dragged some distance by the train before it deposited the heavily-damaged auto into a trackside ditch where it remained, screened from the notice of drivers using Pontiac Trail, until a crew member aboard a second freight train headed in the opposite direction noticed the wreckage of the car in the ditch near the tracks around 6:00 A.M.
The train’s crew called 911 and reported the wreck, to which scene emergency respondents from the Ann Arbor Twp. Fire Dept., the Washentaw County Sheriff’s Office and Huron Valley Ambulance paramedics were dispatched. The woman was found conscious but pinned inside her vehicle, from which she was extricated and then rushed to the University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor, where she was admitted in stable condition.
Sgt. Geoffrey Fox of the Washentaw County Sheriff’s Office said the crossing was equipped with flashing lights, but no crossing gates. He also indicated there was no appearance or suspicion of drug or alcohol involvement in the accident.
The Great Lakes Central Railroad is the largest regional railroad in the state of Michigan with an operation covering 424 miles, and is a subsidiary of Federated Railways, Inc., which, in turn, is owned by Federated Capital, a business development corporation headquartered in Farmington Hills, MI.
