Its in the City & Region Section of the Globe this morning:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massac ... _of_train/
Van plunges into path of train
By Michael Levenson, Globe Correspondent | June 20, 2004
EVERETT -- A white Ford van careened off a rotary here yesterday, crashing through a guard rail and a chain link fence before plummeting 20 feet onto a set of railroad tracks, where it was hit by a commuter rail train, authorities said.
The driver, 39-year-old David West of Malden, was rushed to Massachusetts General Hospital with serious head injuries. He was listed in critical condition but was expected to survive, State Police Sergeant Paul Letsche said.
State Police were not sure what caused West to lose control of his van on the Route 99 rotary near Route 16. State Police are investigating the accident. The train, carrying about 110 people, stopped for about an hour at the scene of crash, its passengers still inside. Rescuers picked through the wreckage and photographed the damage to the 1994 Econoline van before the train blasted its whistle and continued to its final destination in Rockport.
No passengers were injured and the train itself was unharmed, MBTA spokesman Joseph Pesaturo said. When the engineer spotted the van resting across the tracks, he braked, but was able only to slow the locomotive to about 40 miles per hour before the collision, Pesaturo said. The van's windshield was crushed and its roof and sides dented.
Surveying the wreckage from a bridge, Trooper James Bedford said the damage to the van could have been much worse.
"I figured it would be ripped in half," he said. "The locomotive must have just glanced it. It pretty much knocked it aside."
© Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company.
