US fire chief finds wife and children dead at crash

A US fire chief rushed to the site of a car-train collision to find that his wife and three children had died in the crash.

The only survivor in the car was Captain Steve Roe’s 10-year-old son Ethan, said Lee Farrester, police chief in Culver, Oregon.

He was admitted to hospital in serious condition with lacerations and fractures.

‘‘Captain Roe got out of the rescue rig and realised it was his family, it was his whole family,’’ said Farrester.

Roe’s wife Sandy and three children - Jason, 15, Tina, 14, and six-year-old Devin - were dead at the scene.

The Roes were driving to school when their car slid on an icy mountain road into an empty freight train, Farrester said.

‘‘The witness said she started braking about halfway down the hill and kept pumping the brakes, but she couldn’t stop in time,’’ he added.