The driver called dispatchers while in her vehicle, which was stuck on the tracks, according to 911 records. Her car was running but could not move off the tracks.
“I jumped the tracks, and I’m literally stuck here, and the train is coming,” she said.
A man who had stopped to help the driver and the dog in the car said the train was three to four minutes away while the driver was on the phone with dispatch.
“Aright, get out of your car!” the dispatcher told the driver. “My advice to you is to leave the car. I hear the train, get out of the car.”
The man helped the driver and the driver’s dog out of the car as his wife waited in their SUV. They all moved to the opposite side of the tracks. The train’s horn blared as it struck the van, pushing it 20 yards before it came to stop.
“Are you injured at all?” the dispatcher asked the driver, advising her to take deep breaths.
“No, we backed away from it just in time,” the driver said. “I got [my dog] out just in time.”
The wife of the passerby comforted the driver as troopers, deputies and firefighters arrived on scene minutes later.
Dispatch believed there was some damage to the train but not enough to prevent it from continuing.
A spokesperson of Norfolk Southern, owner of the train, declined to comment on damage sustained by the train but confirmed no crew workers were injured in the collision.
No injuries were reported, according to the Ohio State Highway Patrol.
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