5 young people dead as driver tries to beat train in Canton

BY CECIL ANGEL, AMBER HUNT, TAMMY STABLES BATTAGLIA AND MATT HELMS • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS • July 9, 2009

Four young Downriver residents and a Virginia man were killed today after they drove around a crossing gate in Canton Township and were hit by an Amtrak train.

One victim was identified by her mother as Jessica Sadler, 14, of Wayne, who was staying with her grandmother nearby the crash scene.

The four others were young men: an 18-year-old and a 20-year-old from Taylor, a 19-year-old from Woodhaven, and a 21-year-old from Stafford, Va., according to a police press release at 9:30 p.m.

They were later identified as Jessica's boyfriend, Eddie Gross, 18, of Taylor; a 20-year-old from Taylor, plus brothers Sean Harris, 19, from the Detroit area, and Terrence Harris, 21, of Stafford, Va.

'I felt a bump and like metal scraping'

“It’s very tragic, certainly for the family and friends of the people in the vehicle, but also for our crew,” Chicago-based Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said. “There’s nothing they can do … to stop vehicles from disregarding warnings about an approaching train.”
Witnesses said the young people were headed northbound on Hannan Road between Michigan Avenue and Van Born just after noon when they went around crossing gates lowered at the railroad tracks, Canton Township Police Sgt. Craig Wilsher said.

The train pushed the teens’ car to the Lotz Road crossing, and the victims were dead at the scene, he added. No one has reported problems with the crossing gates recently, Wilsher said.

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