HESSMER, La. (AP) -- Two people died and a third was hospitalized after a freight train hit a Ford Mustang early Saturday - the second fatal train-vehicle wreck in as many days in Louisiana.
They brought the total number of deaths in such accidents this year to 19, more than the total for any of the past five years.
The Louisiana Highway Safety Commission had begun its annual campaign to remind drivers to stop at train crossings on Monday -- earlier than usual because there had already been so many wrecks.
Louisiana has had no more than 15 such deaths in any single year since 1998, when there were 25. The highest number recorded is 32 in 1992.
On Friday, the driver of a tanker truck filled with gasoline and a freight train engineer died in a fiery wreck in Chalmette, across the Mississippi River from New Orleans. The train's conductor died overnight, Louisiana State Police said.
Saturday's wreck occurred shortly after midnight, when a car carrying four people in their teens and early 20s apparently tried to beat a train near Hessmer, an Avoyelles Parish village with about 650 residents.
``It's just a little rural crossing on a parish road. It's not fully upgraded, just little crossbuck signs on each side,'' State Police Sgt. Eddie Andrus said. He did not know whether there were trees nearby or whether drivers have a clear view of the tracks for some distance.
Driver James R. Gaspard, 17, of Marksville was booked with two counts of negligent homicide and one each of negligent injury and failure to yield at a railroad crossing, he said.
Andrus identified the dead as Jessie Oxford, 20, of Hessmer and a passenger from Marksville whose name and age could not be released because relatives had not yet been notified.
Robyn McNeal, 17, of Effie, was in stable condition at Christus-St. Francis Cabrini Hospital in Alexandria, spokesman Tommy Touchet said.
Friday's wreck killed trucker Henry Blount, 55, of Holden, train engineer Dennis Vinson, 58, of Covington, and conductor Anthony J. ``Tony'' Mills, 58, of the Carriere, Miss., area.
Vinson and Mills were in the cab of the Norfolk Southern Railway train when it hit a tank truck which had just picked up more than 8,000 gallons of gasoline at a nearby refinery.
Blount died in the explosion, which sent flames 50 feet into the air.
Blount's previous driving record for Lard Oil had been perfect, said Johnny Milazzo, president of the Denham Springs company. ``We're struggling to understand what happened,'' he said.
Louisiana State Police said Saturday that they are still investigating the cause of that accident.
The crossing is marked with signals but does not have an automatic arm to stop traffic. There is a traffic light at the intersection, but trains have the right of way even when it is green.
A third railroad employee, brakeman Charles La Bella, 58, of Chalmette, jumped to safety from the train, authorities said. The locomotive was destroyed.
Witnesses said they weren't sure whether to try to help or run away for their own safety.
Ronnie Alonzo, a St. Bernard School Board administrator, was standing outside the school district's administration building less than a block away when he heard a long train whistle. He looked over seconds before the train hit the tanker's center.
``It was slow motion, like something out of a movie. It kind of lifted (the tanker) up and turned it on its side,'' said Alonzo. ``And as it turned on its side, the tanker cracked. You could see the liquid coming out and seconds after the liquid came out, flames started.''
Within 10 to 15 seconds, he said, it exploded into flames shooting 50 to 60 feet high, into overhead power lines.
``The fuel was dumping into the ditch and igniting, and it started coming toward us in the ditch,'' he said. ``A lot of people didn't know which way to run.''
Without the ditch, the burning fuel could easily have flooded the streets and headed toward businesses, St. Bernard Parish Fire Chief Thomas Stone said.
The Chalmette ferry and part of St. Bernard Highway were closed most of the day.
Entergy officials said about 850 customers, including the nearby St. Bernard Parish Prison, were without electricity for about five hours. The prison's own generators were enough for light and safety, but not for air conditioning, authorities said.
Felton LaFrance, 41, of Pointe a la Hache, and his wife and son were in a car next to the tanker truck. ``The light changed and the 18-wheeler went across the road and the train struck,'' LaFrance said.
Information from: The Times-Picayune
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