4 Die In Train Collision

Witnesses say this sedan was driving around the safety gates when the train hit, sending the car airborne and killing four young passengers inside.

ROBERT BURKE / Tribune

By BILLY TOWNSEND and JOSH POLTILOVE The Tampa Tribune

Published: Jul 17, 2007

LAKELAND - From the Iron Horse garage where she works, Sanquinitta Johnson could see the lights flashing at the rail crossing on the other side of Olive Street. She heard the bells ringing and watched the safety gates come down.

And she saw the red sedan risk it.

As the fast-moving, eastbound Amtrak train bore down, the car, carrying four people, headed north on Wabash Avenue over the first and second of the three sets of tracks within the crossing. It didn't make the third.

"The train had no chance to stop," Johnson said.

The impact was horrific. It threw the vehicle into the air, as high as the top of nearby light poles, Johnson and another witness said. The car came to rest about 300 yards east of the crossing, unrecognizable. Its engine and other parts came loose, leaving a trail of debris.

"It was like a bad nightmare," Johnson said.

At least one person was thrown from the car, and everyone was killed, probably on impact. Within minutes of the 3:16 p.m. crash, an Amtrak official said there were no survivors. No one was taken to a hospital, Lakeland police said. It was several hours after the crash before all the victims and the wreckage were removed.

Lakeland police said they were unable to verify identities and notify all next of kin Monday night. They described them only as three women and a man from Lakeland, all young adults. But many people at the scene said they knew one or more of them.

Her older brother identified Brittany Nichole Doreen Stickney as one of the victims. The 18-year-old Lakeland woman had a 2-year-old daughter, Karley Trejo, who was not in the vehicle.

None of the 161 people on the train was injured, Amtrak reported.

The train had started in Miami and was headed to New York via Tampa and Lakeland. It stopped not far from the crash site and was delayed two hours and 12 minutes, Amtrak spokeswoman Karina Romero said.

The train showed few signs of damage, just a smear of red paint on its right front side.

A video of the crash has been recovered from a nearby Publix warehouse but will not be released while the investigation remains open, Lakeland police spokesman Jack Gillen said.

Late Monday night, Lakeland police confirmed the flashing lights and crossing arms were down at the time of the crash. If that proved to be the case, Gillen had said earlier, and the driver did try to beat the train, "It's a useless, senseless tragedy."

A Neighborhood In Mourning

In the chaotic, sweltering aftermath of the crash, a crowd gathered at the intersection of Olive and Wabash Avenue, the site of the crossing. It soon became clear that this was a community tragedy.

While authorities struggled to piece together identities, many people on-site said they knew some or all of the presumed victims, who were said to have ties to the industrial neighborhood surrounding the crossing.

Jennifer Papizan, 19, said she knew who the victims were. She learned of the crash from a mutual friend via cell phone and drove the mother of one of the victims to the crash scene.

The four people in the red sedan, which she identified as a Pontiac Grand Am, had been at her nearby home minutes before the crash, Papizan said.

Her boyfriend had let one of the four use their Internet connection to take an online driving course. Papizan described the group as three girls or young women and one man. She said she had known the man "all my life."

As word-of-mouth spread about the likely identities of the victims, another woman, Sarah Estes, said she knew all of them well because they had often hung out at Skeeter's, a nearby game room that Estes has since turned into an auto repair shop.

Estes said that when her own 19-year-old son died in a motorcycle crash last year, all four young people attended his funeral.

"These things are hard. They never go away," Estes said. "These are like my kids. I loved those children."

Later, at the home of Sharon Robson, Stickney's mother, a crowd of mourners gathered.

Robson said her daughter would have turned 19 on Aug. 19. She said she had bought and wrapped her present - some new clothes. Robson said Stickney had attended Auburndale High School but didn't finish.

"She liked to have fun; she liked kids, and she really loved her daughter," Robson said.

A Grimly Familiar Scene

Monday's crash took place near the site of a June 13 crash that killed 18-year-old Kacee Hanscom of Lakeland. In that case, Hanscom drove around safety gates and was struck by a westbound Amtrak train.

The crashes happened at different crossings but on the same long, straight stretch of track west of downtown Lakeland. Amtrak trains are allowed to travel up to 79 mph on this stretch, said Romero, the Amtrak spokeswoman. The speed of the train in Monday's crash was not known.

A third collision at a third crossing on this stretch in February destroyed the trailer portion of a tractor-trailer, but no one was hurt.

Problematic behavior at crossings is hardly limited to this stretch of rail in Polk County. A 2004 Northwestern University study of a national rail safety program noted that 80 percent of deaths at crossings with gates and other "active" warning devices happen because a driver ignores the device.

"A perpetual problem has been highway users' poor perception of the dangers of grade crossings," the study notes. "Drivers misjudge the speed of approach of trains, and because they are in a hurry are tempted to drive around lowered gates and/or ignore the flashing lights."

The Federal Railroad Administration said Florida ranked 12th among states in most deaths at crossings in 2006.

Some onlookers at the crash scene said it's common for cars in the area to drive around safety gates to try to avoid waiting for trains. Several admitted to doing it themselves, including Sanquinitta Johnson.

But she says watching what happened Monday afternoon has cured her of the habit.

"I'll never do that again," she said.

Researcher Michael Messano contributed to this report. Reporter Billy Townsend can be reached at (863) 284-1409 or wtownsend@tampatrib.com. Reporter Josh Poltilove can be reached at (813) 259-7691 or jpoltilove@tampatrib.com.