A female driver made a harrowing escape from an oncoming train Tuesday night when she abandoned her stranded Prius on railroad tracks, leaving her car to be totaled by a locomotive heading to Sacramento.
“The driver made a good decision when it came down to protecting her car or her life,” Union City police Lieutenant Jeff Snell told the Mercury News. “She did what she needed to do to survive.”
According to the Mercury News, the Prius driver had stopped her car near the train tracks when she was hit from behind by another vehicle. The impact moved her car onto the railroad tracks, and when she realized the train was coming, she made the decision to leave her car and run. The Prius was reportedly totaled.
Train 546, which was traveling toward Sacramento, struck the Prius at 6:35 p.m. at the intersection of Whipple Road and Railroad Avenue. Luckily, none of the 200 passengers on board was injured. The intersection was reportedly reopened by 9 p.m.
In February of last year, the engineer of a Metrolink train in Oxnard was killed, and 30 people were injured, when the train crashed into a heavy pickup truck and trailer that had been abandoned on the tracks near the intersection of East 5th Street and South Rice Avenue.
Although there were no injuries during Tuesday’s incident, Union City police are encouraging anyone with information on the collision to call 510-471-1365.
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