(The following story by Emily Aronson appeared on the Portsmouth Herald website on January 7.)
NEWMARKET, N.H. — What could have been a deadly accident was avoided Tuesday morning with the help of a quick-acting Newmarket police dispatcher.
Phouthanome Phoubaykham, 18, of 135 Exeter Road, was driving northbound on Route 108 around 7:25 a.m., when slippery road conditions caused her Toyota 4Runner to slide off the road, smash into the guard rail and roll over a steep embankment, landing on its roof on the railroad tracks less than a mile away from an approaching train.
After witnesses who saw the accident called 911, Newmarket dispatcher Nancy Maglaras was able to contact Boston and Maine Railroad to stop the Amtrak Downesater train before it rammed the overturned vehicle. According to Newmarket Sgt. Rick Beaudet, the train came to a stop about three-quarters of a mile from the accident scene.
Beaudet said Phoubaykham was wearing her seatbelt and walked away from the accident unharmed.”Someone was definitely watching out for her safety,” Beaudet said Tuesday afternoon.
“Apparently, the witnesses were more scared than she was,” he said of Phoubaykham?s condition after the accident.
Beaudet said the Downeaster train was held for about 45 minutes as a tow truck cleared the severely damaged sport-utility vehicle from the tracks.
“It was funny last night, because I was just saying that we hadn?t had an accident recently on the tracks,” said Beaudet.