Sumter (WLTX) -- A 16 year-old Sumter County teen is dead after the vehicle he was driving collided with a train. Nearby residents say the railroad crossing where the accident happened has been a concern for a number of years. They say it's nearly impossible to see a train coming until you're on the track. But by then, it could be too late.
"We heard the lights go on and then we heard the train horn and next thing I know, I heard like something hit,"says Barbara Gonzales.
She was doing yard work around lunchtime Thursday when she heard the crash. "It sounded like I heard a bam, and then I heard the brakes,"says Gonzales.
Gonzales lives just yards from the Lynam Road railroad crossing where 16 year-old John M. Brabham III died.
"As I turned around to look, the train you could tell was trying to stop and I knew then it had hit something,"says Gonzales.
Gonzales says she and her husband dropped what they were doing and ran to the scene. After crawling under the stopped train, they stumbled on what was left of Brabham's sport utility vehicle.
"There was a lot of stuff scattered on the ground and it was demolished,"says Gonzales.
The teen's father is well known Sumter businessman John Brabham Jr., a longtime real estate broker. His son, John the third, just recently celebrated his 16th birthday.
"We could tell it was a young boy, we tried to talk to him to get some kind of response," says Gonzales. But there was nothing. At that point, Gonzales says her husband checked for a pulse and started praying for the teen.
"He noticed the pulse got weaker and then it stopped all together,"says Gonzales.
On Thursday afternoon investigators with CSX Railroad were on the scene.
Meanwhile, Gonzales says Thursday's accident is not the first time tragedy has struck these rails. "We had a young girl that got killed there quite a few years ago,"says Gonzales.
While she prays another tragedy is averted, Gonzales also hopes officials will do something to make the crossing safer. "If the crossing guards were there, they would have a better chance of seeing that and knowing that the train is coming,"says Gonzales.
The Lynam Road railroad crossing has trees and bushes on each side making it difficult to see if a train is approaching. Neighbors we spoke with says they may petition for crossing gates at that intersection.
Late Thursday, CSX spokesperson Bob Sullivan told us that the train involved in Thursday's fatal accident is a local from the Cayce area.
Sullivan says the warning devices at the Lynam Road crossing were working properly at the time of the accident. Meanwhile CSX says it's working with local authorities on the investigation.
7/24/2009 9:29:32 AM
