A tragic incident occurred on Indianapolis's east side as a man died after his vehicle was struck by a train. The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department (IMPD) was alerted to the crash around 8:25 p.m. yesterday, near the intersection of East 34th Street and North Arlington Avenue. Responding officers discovered a white four-door Audi that had collided with the train and was spun into the adjacent woods, according to FOX59.
The driver, an adult male in his mid to late 30s, was pronounced dead at the scene. According to the WTHR report, the preliminary investigation suggests that the man tried to circumvent the railroad crossing bars, an effort which had fatal consequences when the train struck his car and dragged it approximately 75 feet.
"Those crossing guards are there for a reason," IMPD Captain John Arvin emphasized in a statement obtained by WTHR. "It's not worth it to beat a train by three minutes." Despite the train operator applying brakes, the vehicle was trailed for a significant distance before the train could halt, as mentioned in the statement. The train reportedly took about a mile to come to a complete stop after the collision.
The fatal crash investigation team of IMPD has taken over the probe into this unfortunate incident. Alongside IMPD, CSX officers were summoned to the scene of the mishap, as documented by a WISH-TV article. The collision saw the driver unsuccessfully executing a maneuver around the barricade, an event recounted by the train's conductor. Determining the link between the reported vehicle malfunction signals and the crash itself forms a critical part of the ongoing investigation.
