An accident report from Angelina County, Texas, tells of the near-death experience of a young man on Tuesday, April 21st. Edgar Garcia, 21, survived after a train struck the car he was traveling in near Diboll.
The Texas Department of Public Safety said that the crash occurred at about 12:45 p.m. at the Red Nash Crossing on a private road. Garcia, who was traveling in a 2018 Chrysler across the crossing, failed to obey a stop sign, and a Union Pacific train struck his car.
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The young man sustained severe wounds, and paramedics took him to an undisclosed hospital for treatment. Garcia’s condition is unknown at the time of this report, and the investigation into the accident remains active.
Data put together by the Federal Railroad Administration show that auto-train accidents often lead to fatalities. In the United States, there are about 600 railroads, with hundreds of miles of tracks, and over 209 000 railroad crossings.
Train crashes kill approximately one person every 100 minutes, and yearly, about a thousand people die in train-related accidents. More than half of the collisions occur at unprotected crossings, and about 80% lack adequate warning signs like lights and gates.
While auto-train collisions are not as frequent as other forms of accidents, occupants of a vehicle that collides with a train are 40 times more likely to die. The factors that cause these crashes range from negligence, human error, to reckless pedestrians and drivers.
Others are mechanical failures, speedy trains, defective tracks, and derailment. Accident reports also show that unprotected railroad crossings, stalled cars on the rail, and suicide are contributing factors.
Disclaimer: The Safety Watch article you just read includes information obtained from numerous sources. These sources include, but are not limited to, websites and press releases from law enforcement, the county coroner, fire departments, and other news outlets. While we strive to provide readers with the most accurate information, sometimes the information received is not entirely accurate. For complete details, please refer to an official police report.
The articles published contain sensitive subject matter that may be hard to read by some. We understand that losing a loved one is hard and devastating. Safety Watch’s decision to share the stories is to help others who may be facing the same situations by providing appropriate resources to the general public.