A freight train crashed into an SUV in Florida Saturday, killing five people – including at least two children – and seriously injuring two adults, police said.
The unidentified family of seven was on their way to a quinceañera around 6:45 p.m. when they rolled into a railroad crossing in Plant City, a town 25 miles east of Tampa.
“The words devastating do not begin to describe the events and tragedies that occurred,” Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister said at a news conference.
Video footage obtained by police shows a Cadillac Escalade slowly approaching the intersection, which is marked only by a stop sign instead of a cross.
The driver continued to crawl across the tracks without looking either way, landing directly in the path of a mile-long freight train traveling at 55 miles per hour, according to Chronister.
Both witnesses in a car parked nearby and the train conductor honked and flashed lights as the conductor tried to slow the convoy, but it was too late.
Police are on the scene after five people died and two were seriously injured after a train hit a vehicle crossing the railroad tracks in Plant City. Chad Chronister/X
“As you can imagine the carnage that was created when these two collided,” the sheriff said.
“The SUV — we can see from the video — started to jump and swerve violently several times before it landed far from this intersection.”
All five backseat passengers — two men and three women — were ejected from the SUV and killed.
The ages of the children killed after the tragic accident were 10, 14 and “adult children,” police were told by the family. Chad Chronister/X
The family told police that among the dead were children aged 10, 14 and “adult children.”
The driver and front-seat passenger, both adult men, were trapped inside the SUV that “looked like a broken soda can,” Chronister said.
After being freed by the jaws of life, the couple was rushed to an area hospital in critical condition.
“Maybe the whole family lost their lives here tonight. We’re all obviously shaken up, we’re all moved tonight after witnessing what happened here tonight,” lamented Chronister.
The tragedy is still under investigation.
Categories: Trending
Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
