Driver and passengers walk away unharmed
Staff writer
Four people escaped serious injury Friday afternoon when the car in which they were riding was struck by a train.
Christian Petersen, 26, 319 N. Ash, Hillsboro, told authorities he was driving south on Remington Road, southwest of Marion in a 2006 Dodge Stratus when he hit a puddle that blinded him from seeing a train as it was crossing the tracks.
As he approached the tracks, one of Petersen’s passengers in the backseat warned him of an oncoming train, but when Petersen applied the brakes, the car slid on the muddy road.
The car ran into the train as the locomotive was heading east striking the car, destroying the driver’s side quarter panel and wheel.
The conductor of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe train, Kelly D. Curtis, 34, of Wichita, stopped the train and disconnected some of the cars so the Marion County Sheriff’s Department could investigate.
Petersen and passengers Aurora Salamone, 20, of Tampa, Alex Altum, 3, and James Murray, 23, were not injured in the mishap.