(The following story by Robert Blaszkiewicz and Lauri Harvey Keagle appeared on the Munster Times website on April 4.)
GARY, Ind. — A Gary woman and man were killed late Wednesday when an Amtrak train struck their car on the County Line Road crossing north of U.S. 12 between Gary and Portage.
The woman was identified as Adreinne Mills, 21, of the 4800 block of Jefferson Street in Gary, said Porter County Coroner Vicki Deppe. Mills, who was the passenger in the 2002 Kia Optima, died of blunt force trauma to the head and chest, Deppe said.
The driver of the car was a 29-year-old man, also from Gary. Deppe said Thursday the identity of the man was being withheld pending notification of family.
There was no familial relationship between Mills and the man, Deppe said.
Rescue crews from the Portage Fire Department were called at 10:42 p.m. to County Line Road and U.S. 12, said Portage Deputy Fire Chief Mike Bucy.
“When we got there, the car was wrapped around the front of the engine, around half a mile east of County Line Road,” Bucy said.
Portage police said two medical helicopters initially were called to the scene to airlift any victims to local hospitals, but both were dead when rescuers arrived.
Mills’ mother, Deborah Mills, said Thursday her daughter was being driven Wednesday by a close friend to drop off candy sales money at her girlfriend’s house. Adreinne Mills was godmother of the woman’s child and was helping with a school fundraiser.
“She was a very outgoing person, loved to help people, would do anything for you she could,” Deborah Mills said about her daughter, who was a dialysis technician at Davita Dialysis in Gary and was enrolled at Brown Mackie College in Michigan City to become a surgical technician. She previously attended Lew Wallace High School in Gary and graduated from Olympia College in Merrillville.
Gary police Lt. Tom Pawlak said a witness stopped on the north side of the crossing saw the driver of the northbound Kia go around the southernmost set of gates, and then enter the southbound lane to go around the second set of gates when his car was struck by the train.
Pawlak said the gates were functioning properly and the signals were flashing.
The Amtrak train, which was doing 80 mph at the time of the accident, was eastbound on the Norfolk Southern tracks from Chicago’s Union Station to New York City, Pawlak said. No one on the train was injured.
“People think that they can beat the train, and they don’t understand how fast the train is going,” Pawlak said.
Toxicology tests taken on both Mills and the man are pending, Deppe said.
The crash closed U.S. 12 from 10:42 p.m. Wednesday until 2:30 a.m. Thursday.