Tuesday, March 24, 2015

DRIVER INJURED IN FIERY MERCEDES-TRAIN COLLISION IN HILLIARD, OHIO. THE CAR BROKE THROUGH THE GATE AND STRUCK THE SIDE OF THE FRONT OF THE TRAIN




A car sits on the side of the road after a collision with a train on Davidson Road in Hilliard.

MARCH 24, 2015

HILLIARD, OHIO

Hilliard police said this afternoon that they didn't know why a car driven by a 61-year-old man hit a train this morning just east of Hilliard Davidson High School.
Police received a call at 11:17 a.m. that a train and a car had been in a collision at the Davidson Road crossing, east of Avery Road, Chief Doug Francis said.

The driver was conscious in his Mercedes when police arrived, but the car caught fire and the driver had to be rescued, he said. He was taken to OhioHealth Riverside Methodist Hospital; his injuries were not thought to be life threatening.

Francis said the driver was eastbound on Davidson. The gates at the crossing were down and the lights were flashing, but the car broke through the gate and struck the side of the front of the train.

The man was not identified. 

The train was a CSX train and was slightly damaged. It remained on the tracks 3/4 of a mile from the site of the collision. One crossing gate was broken off.

Hilliard Davidson is on spring break this week.

In November 1992, three Whetstone High School students were killed at the site, which then had flashing signals but no gates. In March 1991, a 61-year-old Upper Arlington resident was killed when the car he was driving was struck by a northbound train at the crossing.
Gates were put up at the crossing in 1993.
Source: http://www.dispatch.com