BELLE PLAINE, Iowa — A woman and child were killed when a train struck them in Belle Plaine Friday morning.
According to a statement issued by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI), officers of the Belle Plaine Police Department responded to a reported accident about 5 a.m. at the Ninth Avenue railroad crossing in Belle Plaine.
An approximately 35-year-old woman and an approximately 8-year-old boy were found dead at the scene, according to officials of the Union Pacific Railroad. The DCI said the names of the victims will not be released until they have been positively identified and the families notified.
Counseling resources have been made available to the engineer and other railroad employees, according to a report in the Cedar Valley Daily Times of Vinton.
The Iowa State Patrol, Benton County Sheriff’s office, Benton County EMS and Benton County Fire Department also responded to the incident.
So sad but so preventable. It doesn’t surprise me. I used to participate in an annual U.S. Civil War reenactment staged there once a summer. The trains come right through town and none too slowly. If you’ll notice from the satellite photo above, the tracks make a bit of a curve right there in the town proper. My buddies and I crossed that very intersection many a time going from camp to the local watering holes. There was more than once we had to jump quickly as the eastbound trains caught us by surprise. If you’re distracted or not listening well, you don’t notice those eastbound trains until the last moment as you can’t see around the bend. I don’t know the details about this accident, but it does not surprise me. They need to do one of two things or both. They need to consider a crossing gate for one. Those trains should slow to a crawl there in any case. It’s a bad deal there, and it’s needed fixed for years. Perhaps now they’ll fix it.