A screengrab of the video. | (Photo Courtesy: X/@CollinRugg)
Utah: A driver of an SUV escaped from its jet, moments before the vehicle got hit a Utah Transit Authority (UTA) passenger train in Layton, last week, as per a report Fox News. A video from the shocking incident has now gone viral on social media.
A clip taken from within the locomotive featured the train speeding down the tracks towards the railroad crossing.
“Oh, come on,” the train operator was heard saying in the video as the train horn blasted. A white SUV was captured blocking the crossing partially as the train approached.
Have a look at it here:
In the video, the locomotive, unable to stop in time, collided with the vehicle, producing a loud thump from inside the train. Nearby security cameras captured another angle of the crash, showing the SUV driver approaching the railroad crossing as the red lights flashed and the gate arm lowered.
Instead of stopping before the gate, the SUV was pushed from behind by a white pickup truck, causing it to cross the tracks while narrowly avoiding the bottom of the lowered gate arm.
The driver slammed the brakes, stopping with the rear wheels between the rails. They then put the vehicle in reverse, hitting the gate arm and coming to a stop with the front wheels partially blocking the tracks. As the driver continued to reverse, the gate arm was pushed back before the car finally halted.
The driver exited the vehicle and quickly walked away, just moments before the train approached and crashed into the SUV, sending it spinning into the gate arm and destroying its front end.
UTA public information officer Gavin Gustafson spoke with KSLTV, noting that everyone was lucky to escape without injury. He acknowledged that, while it’s easy to criticize the driver’s actions in hindsight, they were likely in shock.
Gustafson further told the television station that the driver may not have wanted to move forward if another train was coming, and sometimes visibility is blocked, making decisions in such moments difficult.
