An accident report from Cass County, Michigan, revealed that three men sustained critical injuries in an accident on Thursday, April 16th. The authorities said Dustin Hooker, 44, of Battle Creek, was the driver of the vehicle involved in the crash.
The Cass County Sheriff’s Office said that the accident occurred at about 6 p.m. on the tracks near Savage Road near the intersection of Waterstradt Street in Marcellus Township. Hooker was traveling north on Savage when his brakes failed, and his vehicle collided with a passing CN train.
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The man had two passengers with him identified as Paul Smith, 43, of Tekonsha, and 33-year-old Gayland Campbell of Marcellus. The two were not wearing seatbelts, which caused them to get ejected from the vehicle.
Smith sustained severe injuries, and the authorities airlifted him to a hospital for treatment. Campbell, who also had life-threatening wounds, was taken with an ambulance to the hospital. Hooker was hospitalized but in stable condition.
The passengers in the train did not sustain any injury, and the police do not believe that alcohol or drugs played a role in the accident. The crash remains under investigation.
Accident reports have shown that crashes involving trains kill approximately one person every 1 minute in the United States. Yearly, 1, 000 people are killed in train-related accidents, and half of all the railway crashes occurred at unprotected crossings.
More than 80% of crossings lack adequate warning signs and devices like lights and gates. Occupants of vehicles that collide with a train are likely to have fatal wounds, than with a car of the same size.
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