Three People Killed By Amtrak Train

Chrissie Cole

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Three Orlando, FL, residents were killed when an Amtrak train struck a car that was driving across the train tracks, according to authorities.

Although the railroad crossing arms were dropped and the lights were flashing, a Buick drove under them on Friday night, said the train conductor. According to investigators, the speedometer of the car was stuck at 55 mph after the crash, on a road that has a 40 mph limit.

The train sustained minor damage and none of the passengers were injured in the accident.

The sedan was crossing the tracks eastbound on Lancaster when a northbound Amtrak train carrying about 170 passengers crashed into it. The car went airborne, landing hundreds of feet away near a warehouse parking lot. It smashed into a parked tractor-trailer before overturning.

Three people were killed and one remains in critical condition at Orlando Regional Medical Center.

According to a safety-council Web site, a motorist is 30 times more likely to die in a crash involving a train than in one involving another vehicle; a typical train weighs the same as 4,000 automobiles combined. But the number of people killed as a result of grade-crossing collisions has decreased by 70 percent from a high of 1,115 in 1976 to 338 in 2007.