US rail cross crash

A FREIGHT train, travelling at 60mph, smashed into a minivan at a crossing that lacked lights or gates, killing all four people in the vehicle.

The minivan driver was apparently trying to skirt around highway roadworks to get to Columbus, Wisconsin, yesterday, when the vehicle was hit by the train and pushed about a mile down the tracks, authorities said.

The four victims - two women and two men - were believed to be from south-eastern Wisconsin, police said. The two crew members were not injured.

The rail crossing had only a sign marking it, but no lights or gates, said Federal Railroad Administration spokesman Steve Kulm.

According to the engineer, the minivan driver appeared to look down the tracks before the accident, then turn away as if talking to someone else in the vehicle, said Rodney Kreunen, state railroad commissioner.