An 82-year-old woman in New Jersey escaped with only minor injuries after a freight train plowed into her sedan and pushed it a quarter of a mile down the tracks.
On the eve of Thanksgiving, the woman was driving on Route 535 near Stults Road in South Brunswick when she saw flashing railroad warning lights and stopped, according to the South Brunswick Police Department.
The woman told police she thought she had stopped before the tracks. But her car was positioned directly on top of them, police said.
At 3:05 p.m., a Conrail freight train slammed into her gray sedan, shoving it roughly a quarter mile before it was able to brake.
Photos released by South Brunswick police on social media show the vehicle sitting perpendicular across the rails as the train barrels towards it.
Police said the woman, whose name has not been released, “suffered a minor leg injury and was transported to an area hospital.”
Route 535 was shut down for about two hours while crews cleared the wreckage.
The harrowing crash unfolded just hours before another fatal collision in South Brunswick.
In an unrelated incident, a 61-year-old township woman was killed in a three-vehicle crash on New Road between Rt. 522 and Rt. 1 at 4:24 p.m. That woman died at the hospital.
The Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office and the South Brunswick Police Traffic Safety Bureau are still investigating that incident.
