DEWEYVILLE, Utah — A mother and two children were not seriously injured after a train slammed into their minivan in Box Elder County on Saturday.
The Tremonton Fire Department reported the incident occurred at about 5:30 p.m. on Main Street in Deweyville.
When crews arrived at the scene of the collision, the mother and the two children were already out of the minivan and were found not to have any serious injuries.
Alexander Webecke, a paramedic with the Tremonton City Fire Department, said some neighbors nearby helped pull the three out of the car before crews arrived. The mother’s husband was then able to drive all three of them to the hospital.
The department confirmed that everyone inside the vehicle was wearing seatbelts.
“The people were very lucky. If they had been a few seconds faster or a few seconds slower in their accident, they would’ve been in a much worse position,” Webecke said.
An investigation is underway to determine what led up to the incident.
Brad Palmer, the director of UDOT’s Rail Division, says on average, there are about 10 freight train collisions with vehicles per year in Utah.
“Unfortunately, a car and train accidents are a little bit more common than we’d like them to be. It’s important when you’re coming up on a railroad track to stop to look both ways just like you were crossing the street,” Webecke said. "Don’t try and shoot the gap and go across the train tracks. That was a little bit of a problem we faced yesterday; there were some people trying to shoot the gap."
