A freight train smashed into an SUV carrying seven people on a rural southeastern Colorado road near Lamar today, killing six and critically injuring one, according to the Colorado State Patrol and Prowers County authorities.
Two initially survived the crash, including a boy believed to be between 15 and 17 who authorities said was driving the red Ford Explorer, and a woman believed be about 18 who was a passenger in the rear of the vehicle.
They were flown by helicopter to Denver Health Medical Center, according to a spokeswoman at a Prowers Medical Center in Lamar.
“The boy was speaking when he came in here, he did know some English,” Chris Burton said.
The female later died at the hospital, according to Prowers County deputy coroner Pat Leonard.
Coroner Joseph Giadone said the occupants in the vehicle seemed to be all related to each other and the deceased included one child, who appeared to be between 10 and 15 years old, a 36-year-old man and three others who were in their 20s.
The people were migrant workers who were getting ready to move from their temporary home in the area, Giadone said.
“It looked like they were all here legally, from the ones I saw,” Giadone said. “They had IDs from Montana, and we have calls into possible relatives of theirs in Texas. But right now we’re withholding their identities until we reach family.”
The Explorer was travelling northbound on County Road 22.5 when it attempted to cross the railroad tracks and was struck on the passenger side by the westbound train. The train came to a controlled stop a quarter mile away.
Four of the seven occupants in the Explorer were ejected from the vehicle, Giadone said.
The coroner found a receipt in the vehicle and evidence that indicated the group had worked at a couple of farms in the Lamar area but were planning on moving to another area. They had just left Lamar, where they stopped at a Wal-Mart and purchased food for the trip, he said.
“They were getting ready to move on, apparently it didn’t work for them at the farms they had been working at,” Giadone said.
Neither of the two crew members on the train was injured.
State patrol officials said the crossing, about 2 miles west of the town of Granada, 170 miles southeast of Denver near the Kansas border, had no blinking lights to warn of an oncoming train.
The train originated in Kansas City, Kansas, and was headed to California, according to BNSF spokeswoman Lena Kent said. The crew of the train has requested emotional trauma relief and another crew has been brought in to get the train to its destination, Kent said.
Staff writer Kirk Mitchell contributed to this report.
Staff writer Manny Gonzales can be reached at (303) 820-1537 or mgonzales@denverpost.com
