Man watches his car get destroyed after it gets stuck at Ashland rail crossing
ASHLAND — A faulty GPS instruction is being blamed for a car driving onto the train tracks late Sunday afternoon on Main Street before it was destroyed by an oncoming commuter rail train, authorities said.
No one was injured in the 5:54 p.m. incident, acting Police Chief Richard Briggs said Monday.
Police received several calls about a car stuck on the tracks at the downtown Main Street crossing and rushed to the scene to find a Honda Accord stopped diagonally across the tracks. The driver, a Florida man, was out of the car.
“Shortly after arriving, they (the officers) heard the train and it sounded off a warning,” said Briggs. “That was within 15 seconds of arriving at the scene, so there wasn’t even time to contact Keolis to try to stop the train.”
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The commuter train, traveling west from Framingham toward Southborough, struck the car while moving at a “high rate of speed,” pushing the vehicle about 100 yards to the Cherry Street crossing, totaling it.
In a statement, Keolis said no one aboard the train — passengers or employees — was injured.
The driver told police that he was following his GPS, which told him to turn right, which he did, ending up on the tracks.
“That has happened in the past,” Briggs said.
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Briggs said the Main Street train crossing has had similar issues with GPS directing drivers to turn there. The crossing is near Stone’s Public House and parking for other businesses, which causes drivers to sometimes to turn onto the tracks mistakenly thinking it is the entrance to a parking lot.
Sunday’s crash occurred two years to the day after another car was struck at the same crossing. No one was injured in that incident either, Briggs said.
“It was almost the same identical situation as this one,” he said.
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The Ashland incident was the second train crash in four days in MetroWest. Last Wednesday, a truck was struck by a freight train in Sherborn. The driver suffered injuries not believed to be life-threatening.
Norman Miller can be reached at 508-626-3823 or nmiller@wickedlocal.com. For up-to-date public safety news, follow Norman Miller on Twitter @Norman_MillerMW or on Facebook at facebook.com/NormanMillerCrime.
This article originally appeared on MetroWest Daily News: Commuter train destroys car that mistakenly ends up on Ashland tracks
