Swanton – Troopers from the Toledo Post of the Ohio State Highway Patrol are investigating a crash between a train and an SUV on Main Street, north of US 20A, in the Village of Swanton, Fulton County.
On June 6, 2019, at approximately 10:17 P.M., a train traveling west struck a Chevy Tahoe left abandoned on the tracks. Thirteen train cars derailed.
Three other parked and abandoned passenger cars were struck by debris after the initial crash. No injuries were reported in this crash. Immediately following the crash, Toledo Edison reported an estimated 4,200 residents without power. Power was restored by Friday morning.
Two passer bys saw what was happening and sprang into action. “I was going to a friends house for a fire. We pull out and we see a white Tahoe on the train tracks. So, I pulled the car over. It was me, her (Warne) and three other people. We got out of my car. Me and my buddy grabbed her (Tahoe driver) out of the vehicle because she was like, ‘I don’t want to leave my Tahoe because my dad just bought it.’ I said ‘You gotta get out before you die.” said Dustin Sego, a 2018 Swanton High School graduate.
“I’m sitting there screaming ‘Call 911,’ I’m trying to lift the bumper up because it wasn’t touching the gravel. But you could like move it and we tried teetering it to get it but then the railroad crossing started to go off.”, stated Mackenzie Warne, a 2017 graduate of Swanton.
“I saw the train coming and me and my friend grabbed her out of the white Tahoe, took her off the tracks. The train came, smoked the Tahoe, all you see is flames up in the air and the train went and derailed. I went around right by the barber shop on Main Street, parked my vehicle there so I could make sure she was okay and everything. Then she said, ‘I gotta leave because my dad’s going to kill me,’ so, she just books it down Main Street and then the cops said, ‘You have to leave because it’s about to explode,’ so we just booked it.”, added Sego. Witnesses stated the driver of the Tahoe appeared to be intoxicated.
The Ohio State Highway Patrol was assisted at the scene by the Swanton Police Department, Swanton Fire & EMS, the Ohio Department of Transportation and Toledo Edison. The crash and its chain of events remain under investigation.