(The following story by Gina Damron and Megha Satyanarayana appeared on the Detroit Free Press website on July 11, 2009.)
DETROIT — Both railway crossing gates were definitely down when a car full of young people heading north on Hannan Road collided with a train in Canton Township on Thursday, according to an Amtrak official.
At least one witness to the crash said Saturday that she did not see the gates down or the lights flashing.
But surveillance tape taken from the front of the train shows both gate arms down and flashers working, Greg Clifton an attorney retained by Amtrak, said Saturday. He said he was at the scene the day of the crash and saw the tape.
“The gates were absolutely down,” Clifton said.
Five young people were killed in the crash — Dan Broughton, 19; Jessica Sadler, 14, of Wayne; her boyfriend, Eddie Gross, 17, of Taylor; Sean Harris, 19, of Taylor, and his brother Terrence Harris, 21, of Stafford, Va. Friends of Broughton say he was rushing to get to his job that afternoon at Kroger in Brownstown Township.
Witness Ashley Vaughn said neither she nor her husband Dwayne saw the railway arms lower or the crossing lights flashing that day as they drove south on Hannan Road. They saw people standing near the track.
After the crash, the Westland couple doubled back and headed to the intersection up the railway where the Ford Fusion was dragged, about a mile away.
They said they ran down the tracks to the mangled car and started banging on what was left of the car, trying to jostle those inside, watching closely for an eye to blink or a hand to quiver.
She said the driver and passengers sat, motionless, their eyes fixed open.
“You could see they were all gone,” said Ashley Vaughn, 23.
She said that about 10 or 15 minutes later, four people she believed to be railway workers arrived, one asking her whether the railway arms ever went down or whether the crossing lights turned on.
“We did not see them down,” Ashley Vaughn, said Saturday. “We did not see no lights. Nothing.”
Clifton said the couple was “just plainly mistaken.”