(The following story by Sharon Dunten appeared on the Hattiesburg American on March 25.)
JACKSON, Miss. — The Church Road railroad crossing on Eastabuchie Road in southern Jones County will be closed today following two separate car-train accidents Monday that led to the death of one man and left a woman in critical condition.
Albert Payton, 63, died at the crossing after a Norfolk Southern train struck his Mitsubishi Montero Sport about 4 p.m.
A Seminary woman was critically injured when an Amtrak train collided with her Ford Mustang at the same crossing shortly after 9:30 a.m.
The woman, whose identity wasn’t released Monday, was listed in critical but stable condition in Forrest General Hospital.
None of the Amtrak passengers was hurt, officials said.
Monday’s fatal crash was the third death at the Church Road crossing this year. Felicia Harris, 17, and Destiny Gattis, 12, were killed in a train-vehicle crash Jan. 16.
In the fatal crash Monday afternoon, one witness said it didn’t appear that Payton was trying to beat the train.
Tammy Dickerson, owner of the nearby Salon Tammy, said, “I heard the train blowing its whistle; I immediately looked. The SUV was just coasting over the crossing,” she said.
She said Payton didn’t appear to be going fast.
Shuanita White, spokeswoman for the Jones County Sheriff’s Department, said Mississippi Department of Transportation investigator Daniel Johnson said the Norfolk Southern freight train was going 48 mph. Jones County Sheriff Alex Hodge said the only option is to close the crossing.
“It’s senseless. Why leave it open? Just close it,” he said after Monday’s fatality.
Two of Payton’s brothers and a brother-in-law surveyed the twisted remains of his SUV following the wreck. “I had left him only an hour ago in Hattiesburg,” said his brother, Leroy Payton.
Albert Payton is survived by a wife, a son and a daughter. Funeral arrangements are pending. He was retired from the University of Southern Mississippi.