August 24, 2015
by Evan Goodenow
EATON TWP. , OHIO
A driver was killed when her car was struck by a train at the railroad crossing on Reed Road about a quarter-mile south of state Route 82 about 6 p.m. Sunday.
Police and fire officials wait for the Lorain County Coroner to arrive alongside a car that was hit by a train on Reed Road in Eaton Township on Sunday. BRUCE BISHOP/CHRONICLE
Four witnesses, including the CSX train conductor and engineer, said the railroad gates were down and the lights were flashing at the crossing when the crash occurred, said Sgt. Tim Hoffman, Ohio Highway Patrol Elyria post assistant commander. Witnesses said Linda Radesic, who was southbound in a 1997, two-door Saturn, drove left of center around the gates and into the path of the westbound train. Hoffman said troopers continue to investigate why Radesic drove around the gates.
The train dragged the Saturn along the tracks about 60 yards west of the crossing before stopping. Fire Capt. Jason Monschein said the train hit the driver’s side of the Saturn. The 64-year-old Radesic of North Olmsted was dead inside the crushed car when firefighters arrived.
Firefighters draped the Saturn with blankets to shield the woman’s body as a Lorain County Coroner’s office deputy coroner stood by, and troopers collected evidence at the crash scene about 7:30 p.m. Radesic’s body was taken from the scene by coroner’s office personnel at 8:30 p.m. The crossing remained blocked in one direction at 10 p.m., Monschein said.
The conductor and engineer on the train — which had 42 cars and three locomotives — were unhurt, said Rob Doolittle, a CSX spokesman. The train was carrying mixed freight, which Doolittle said could include construction materials and consumer goods. The train was headed from Worcester, Mass., to Chicago.
Radesic was the second driver killed in a crash with a CSX train in Lorain County in 72 hours. Nicholas Roberts, 18, of Wellington, died Thursday night when police said he drove his car through the gates of a railroad crossing and struck the side of a train on Pitts Road in Wellington.