(Long Beach, Mississippi – April 2, 2017)
Two people were sent to Gulfport Memorial Hospital with undisclosed injuries after their Chevrolet northbound pickup truck was struck and heavily damaged by a CSX freight train. The collision occurred at the non-gated crossing of Island View Avenue and CSX railroad tracks in the Gulf Coast city of Long Beach, MS a little after 1:00 PM Sunday afternoon.
Neither occupant nor driver was identified by name, age, gender or city of residence. The collision marked the third collision to occur at the significantly elevated crossing. It is believe that the crossing has been gradually humped as a result of track maintenance and raising along the CSX line.
Interestingly, Long Beach is just west of Gulfport and another few miles west of Biloxi, on the same CSX rail line where a tour bus became stuck on a similarly configured crossing resulting in four deaths and more than three dozen serious injuries when it was struck by a CSX train just last month.
According to information housed on the Federal Railroad Administration’s website, the crossing in Long Beach is traversed by an average of 11 trains daily at a maximum allowable speed of 45 mph. As stated, it has now been the site of three accidents between trains and highway vehicles. The lights were installed after a double fatality in 1984, but never were equipped with gates even after a non-injury collision in 1994. Over 1,000 motor vehicles use the crossing daily.
