Three teenagers killed in wreck at train crossing

Three teenagers were killed Wednesday when a freight train hit their pickup at an Algoma, Idaho, train crossing, about six miles south of Sandpoint.

Trooper Jerry Oden of the Idaho State Police said the accident occurred about 12:15 p.m.

The driver, Michael J. Caven, 18, and his two passengers, Donald P. Vanness, 18, and Katie Gage, 15, all of Sagle, were riding in a 1979 Ford pickup heading south on Algoma Spur Road.

The conductor of the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe train told Oden that the truck slowed as it approached the crossing, then accelerated to cross the tracks without stopping.

The train was hauling new vehicles and containers of general merchandise from Portland to Kansas City, Kan., said Gus Melonas, BNSF spokesman. It was traveling approximately 55 mph and dragged the pickup about a half mile down the tracks, Oden said.

"There does not appear to be any alcohol involved," Oden said, adding that he found no beer cans or other alcoholic beverage containers around the accident scene. The victims will be tested for alcohol, however.

Melonas said the train was blowing its whistle and applying emergency brakes when it hit the side of the pickup.

The driver of the pickup was not speeding, according to what the train's conductor told Oden. The speed limit on Algoma Spur Road is 35 mph, but the conductor estimated the pickup to be traveling at 20 mph.

Oden said it's unclear why the driver didn't stop. The crossing is marked with railroad signs and stop signs. There's a clear view some distance down the double tracks in both directions.

Late Wednesday afternoon, Oden was seeking witnesses who could confirm whether the train sounded its horn.

Neighbor Paul Keeton said he heard the horn - and the subsequent crash.

"It was a loud noise, like a sonic boom or something," he said after surveying the accident scene. Keeton carried his 4-year-old son, Jimmy, and kissed the boy as he walked home.

Keeton told Oden that he heard the train sound its horn as it approached the crossing from the west. He didn't act too surprised that there was an accident at the nearby crossing.

"They usually always run that stop sign," he said of drivers in general. "They never stop."

John Pelz lives in the mobile home closest to the railroad crossing, but wasn't home when the accident happened. He knows of a few previous accidents.

"In winter time there was a guy who slid into the train," Pelz recalled. "He was going too fast."

Young daredevil drivers sometimes jump the tracks, he said, because the crossing creates a rise in the road.

The tracks carry more than 30 trains each day.

The train's conductor and crew were with the Missoula-based Montana Rail Link, which operates trains in North Idaho and western Montana for BNSF, Melonas said.

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