COMSTOCK TWP., MI (WHTC-AM/FM) – A Plainwell woman escaped injury when her car was struck at a railroad crossing and was hit by an oncoming Amtrak passenger train south of her hometown yesterday morning.
According to the Kalamazoo County Sheriff’s Department, the unnamed 47-year-old woman told responding deputies that she was driving southbound on Leenhouts Street at East Michigan Avenue in Comstock Township around 10 AM and tried to stop for the stop sign at the crossing when her vehicle skidded on the snow-covered road and became stuck. Other drivers and a nearby resident warned her that a train was coming, and the woman was able to exit the vehicle before the crash, which utterly destroyed the car and scattered debris along the tracks and onto Michigan Avenue.
The crew members and 100 passengers on the train were not hurt, and the intersection was closed for about three hours. The driver was ticketed for not stopping “within an assured clear distance.”
