Driver suffers several injuries after car gets hit by train Monday

Two people were airlifted to medical centers Monday evening after a car accident involving a train.

Heather Foster, a 20-year-old Rosebush resident, was driving westbound in a 2006 GMC Envoy at 8:47 p.m. on Denver Road when she failed to yield the right of way to a train crossing at the railroad grade crossing, just west of Mission Road. The train struck the Envoy between the driver’s door and the driver’s side passenger door. The vehicle was pushed north by the train across the railroad for 2/10 of a mile before stopping.

The accident left Foster with a potentially broken left arm, head and facial injuries. She was airlifted by Flightcare from the scene of the accident to Hurley Medical Trauma Center in Flint.

The accident also caused unknown injuries to the Envoy passenger and 20-year-old Mount Pleasant resident Levi Light.

Light was transported to Central Michigan Community Hospital, 1221 South Drive, and then airlifted to Covenant Hospital in Saginaw.

The train was a Great Lakes Central Locomotive that was hauling seven cargo cars, along with a second locomotive behind the primary locomotive. The engineer was 32-year-old Owosso resident Joshua Whorley, who did not sustain any injury during the accident.

According to a press release sent out by the Isabella County Sheriff’s Department, Whorley said the vehicle was not going to stop and he applied the brakes on the locomotive train prior to the Denver Road crossing.

The press release said the investigation revealed the driver wasn’t paying attention to the upcoming rail crossing, nor did she see or hear the train.

Isabella County Sheriff Leo Mioduszewski said accidents involving trains do not happen very often.

“We get maybe three train accidents over the last seven years,” Mioduszewski said.

Mioduszewski said as people approach the tracks, they should be looking both ways to see if there’s a train before proceeding across the tracks.

“Any time you come near railroad tracks, especially if it’s out in the country where they don’t have the arms and lights going, you should be looking and expecting that there may be a train coming, that way you can stop in time,” Mioduszewski said.

Drugs and alcohol were not believed to be factors in the incident. A seatbelt was worn by Light, and it is unknown if Foster had a seatbelt on.

The Isabella County Sheriff’s Department was assisted by the Saginaw Chippewa Tribal Police, the Isabella NorthEast Fire Department, Mobile Medical Response and Flightcar.