Tennessee Motorist Critically Injured by Norfolk Southern Train at Private, Unguarded CSX Crossing
(Clinton, Tennessee – April 14, 2018)
The male driver of a Jeep Commander was struck by a 110-car-long empty Norfolk Southern coal train at a dangerous and unguarded private crossing Saturday evening in Clinton, TN. The victim was subsequently transported and admitted in critical condition to the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville.
The victim, who was not named or further identified by Tennessee Highway Patrol personnel responding to the accident, had just turned off Old Lake City Highway and onto a private drive on his way home when he crossed the tracks in front of one of five trains that travel through that corridor daily at a maximum allowable speed of 50 mph. While the train involved in this collision was a Norfolk Southern train, the tracks and crossing is owned and maintained by CSX Transportation Inc.
The THP troopers investigating the crash remarked to WATE-TV, Channel 6 in Knoxville that “there are no lights at the railroad crossing to warn drivers of an oncoming train.”
