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Woman dies in downtown Amtrak collision
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| By: ADAM NORTHAM, DAILY LEADER Staff Writer |
October 01, 2009 |
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Photos By ADAM NORTHAM and THERESE APEL
Emergency and railroad crews work to clear the tracks after Brookhaven’s Fannie Black, 68, crossed between the lowered crossing gates at Monticello Street and was struck by a New Orleans-bound Amtrak passenger train. Black died two and one-half hours after the accident at King’s Daughters Medical Center.
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A Brookhaven woman died Wednesday afternoon at King's Daughters Medical Center after her car was struck by a passenger train.
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Fannie Black, 68, collapsed and died in the emergency room at KDMC around 3:45 p.m., Lincoln County Coroner Clay McMorris confirmed. Black's death occurred more than two hours after the accident, after which emergency responders and witnesses said she was responsive and seemingly OK.
McMorris said Black's body would be sent to the state crime lab for an autopsy to determine her exact cause of death.
"Right now, we don't know. We know it's probably internal," McMorris said.
Black was traveling west on Monticello Street around 1:10 p.m. when the Amtrak began decelerating to stop for an afternoon pickup at the depot. Law enforcement and witnesses at the scene said the crossing gates had lowered, other traffic was already stopped and the train's horn was blaring, but Black drove around a stopped car and attempted to zigzag through the gap between the gates.
The train struck Black's Daewoo Nubira station wagon in the passenger side and pushed the car just beyond the south end of the depot, almost an entire block.
Shannon May, an employee of the Lincoln County Tax Assessor/Collector's Office who stopped for the train and witnessed the accident up close, said there was no way the train could have stopped before striking Black's car.
"When she came between the rails, the train was there," she said. "I was trying to give her the motion, 'Stop! Stop! Stop!' It was quick. It was like a nightmare."
Motorists navigating through lowered gates at rail crossings in downtown Brookhaven is a common sight, especially when Amtrak trains stop just beyond them or when Canadian National crews trigger them while working on the track.
Brookhaven Police Chief Pap Henderson stressed that no one should ever attempt to bypass the gates, no matter how close or far a train or work crew may be.
"That's what we tell people all the time. When these crossings are down, we've got to follow the law," he said.
Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said none of the 51 passengers aboard the train were injured in the collision. The train, No. 59, departed Chicago on Tuesday and arrived in New Orleans Wednesday about one hour late.
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©The Daily Leader 2009
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