Ten people - seven passengers and three NJ Transit staff who were riding on the train - sustained minor injuries and were treated and released from two area hospitals. Engineer Charles Stevenson, who was operating the train, was among those treated and released from Kennedy Memorial Hospitals' Stratford Division.
Berlin Borough Police Chief Dennis Chance said Spirit was traveling south on Harker Avenue between Route 73 and the White Horse Pike when she attempted to maneuver around the lowered railroad gates at the crossing.
The car then stopped on the railroad tracks and was struck by the train at 11:22 a.m., Chance said a news conference. The mangled black Ford Escort was dragged about 2,300 feet by the train until it came to a stop near the McClellan Avenue railroad crossing. NJ Transit officials said they were
uncertain of the rate of speed of the train, but a spokesman said it was within the 80 m.p.h. legal limit.
About 175 passengers were on the train.
Chance said he did not know why the car had stopped on the tracks.
He said police had interviewed five witnesses to the accident who had been traveling in cars near the site of the collision.
The train was the third of six trains scheduled to leave the Lindenwold station on the first day of service of NJ Transit's Atlantic City Rail Line. The rail line got off to a nearly flawless start yesterday morning as the first train from Lindenwold left the station on time at 6:26 a.m.
The $106 million commuter line runs between Lindenwold and Atlan-
tic City daily, making stops at Atco, Hammonton, Egg Harbor City and Absecon. The train runs on the same track as Amtrak's Gamblers' Express service, which runs from 30th Street Station in Philadelphia to Atlantic City, making only one stop in New Jersey at the Lindenwold train station.
