(The following story by Paul Rioux appeared on the Times-Picayune website on January 6.)
NEW ORLEANS — A St. Tammany Parish school bus with no children on board was hit by a freight train Monday afternoon in Slidell after the driver stopped at a red light with the rear of the bus on the railroad tracks, police said.
No one was injured in the 4:30 p.m. crash at the crossing near Gause Boulevard and Front Street.
A 144-car Norfolk Southern Railroad train traveling about 25 mph slammed into the back left corner of the bus, causing it to spin parallel with the tracks, Slidell police Lt. Rob Callahan said.
Jamie Rancatore, 27, a substitute bus driver, was ticketed for disregarding a railroad crossing sign, Callahan said.
Rancatore was driving east on Gause when she stopped at a red light at Front with the back of the bus still on the tracks, he said.
She told police that the two drivers ahead of her failed to move forward to give her room to clear the crossing. But Callahan said state law requires motorists to make sure they have 50 feet of clearance before driving over railroad tracks.
The train engineer, Charles Mosby, 59, of Meridian, Miss., applied the train’s emergency brakes but was unable to stop in time, Callahan said.
The impact crushed one of the back seats on the bus and forced open the rear emergency door, which dangled from its twisted hinges above a red bumper sticker that says, “We stop at all RR crossings.”
The southbound train continued for another block, stopping just before it entered the crossing at West Hall Avenue.
Juanita Jenny, who was driving one of the cars stopped in front of the bus, said she was alarmed when the bus started coming over the tracks after the traffic light had turned red.
“We kept inching forward to give her more room, but we had a red light and couldn’t go anywhere,” she said. “The next thing I knew, the railroad crossing arms came down, and the train crashed into the bus.”
Deputy Superintendent Trey Folse said Rancatore, who was filling in for a sick driver, had dropped off her last load of students and was heading home at the time of the crash. He said he did not know which routes she had driven that afternoon.
Folse said it’s too soon to say whether the crash will affect Rancatore’s status as a substitute bus driver for the district.
“We’ll have to wait until we get the police report,” he said. “I’m just thankful there were no kids onboard.”
The accident snarled rush-hour traffic at one of the city’s busiest intersections. The stalled train blocked traffic on Gause for nearly an hour as authorities investigated the crash and cleared the wreckage.