Three Austell residents were killed Friday night when an Amtrak train collided with their car in Toccoa, police said.
The wreck happened around 9:45 p.m. when the northbound train collided with the car outside a subdivision on Grant Smith Road in Toccoa.
All three people in the car were killed when the train T-boned the 2008 Mazda, according to Stephens County Sheriff Randy Shirley. Shirley told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the car was attempting to go through an unprotected railroad crossing that was marked only with a stop sign.
He called it a ‘violent crash.’ He said the train, which was going about 60 mph at the time of impact, pushed the car about 300 feet. The car then overturned, fell into a ravine and caught fire, the sheriff said.
The victims, a male and two females in their 20s, were on their way to visit a family in Toccoa, Shirley said. He said their names are being withheld pending notification of kin. The victims bodies have been taken to the GBI crime lab in Atlanta, Shirley said.
He said there was no indication that drugs or alcohol were involved. Shirley said there were no injuries on the train which was heading to Washington, D.C. from New Orleans.
Toccoa is located 96 miles northeast of Atlanta.
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