(The following article appeared in the January 10 issue of the Roanoke Times.)
ROANOKE, Va. — A mother and her adult daughter where killed in Salem on Thursday after they drove their van past flashing lights, around a warning gate, and into the path on a freight train, authorities said.
A Norfolk Southern train traveling about 45 mph hit the minivan about 7 a.m. as it crossed the railroad tracks at Union Street, just south of Fourth Street, said Melinda Payne, Salem’s public information officer.
Apparently killed on impact were Phokham Thepsimuang , 61, of Roanoke and her daughter, 29-year-old Roanoke County resident Vatsana Tor Thepsimuang .
“The crew did not see the car until they struck it,” Norfolk Southern spokeswoman Susan Bland said of the train’s engineer and conductor.
The Mercury Villager was headed south on Union Street. Officials determined the warning lights and gates were working properly, and Payne said witnesses reported the minivan went around the gates and into the path of the train.
The eastbound train hit the passenger side of the minivan and pushed it nearly half a mile before the train and van came to a stop. The younger Thepsimuang, who was driving, was thrown out of the van as the train was stopping. Neither woman was wearing a seat belt.
The train and van came to a stop east of the Colorado Street bridge, where it took more than two hours to clear the wreckage.
Bland said in good conditions trains travel about 45 mph in that stretch. The train carrying mixed freight weighed 3,483 tons and was roughly 2,000 feet long, Bland said. It was coming from Bristol bound for Roanoke.
The Union Street crossing has flashing lights and gates, which means it has one of the highest-level warning systems available, Bland said.
According to family members, the elder Thepsimuang worked at Oak Hall Cap and Gown, which is immediately south of the crash site. Vatsana Thepsimuang was a food service worker at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital, according to her husband, Boonlert Thepsimuang, who declined further comment. She was also the mother of two young children, Payne said.
There have been at least three train-vehicle collisions at the Union Street crossing in the past two decades. In 1997, car was destroyed but no one was killed . A woman who drove through the gates was killed there in 1991. In 1983, another woman was killed there.
Bland said that nationwide there were 461 rail crossing fatalities in 2001, the most recent year for which figures are available. There were more than 2,000 train-vehicle collisions that year. Bland said Virginia has averaged about two such fatal accidents each year for the past five years.