Lily woman dies in Knox County train wreck Knox County

Local News

February 8, 2011

By Carol Mills Staff Writer The Sentinel-Echo Tue Feb 08, 2011, 05:41 PM EST

LAUREL COUNTY, Ky. — A Lily woman was fatally injured Thursday morning when she was struck by an oncoming train at Gray in Knox County.

Marna K. McCulley, 64, of Lily was attempting to cross a railroad crossing on Arkle Hollow Road when she was hit by an oncoming CSX train, according to a press release from Trooper First Class Walt Meachum, public affairs officer with the Kentucky State Police Post 10 in Harlan.

Troopers responded to the fatal crash at 8:57 a.m. The train hit the passenger side of McCulley’s red Monte Carlo, pushing it several yards down the track.

Trooper Jay Sowders said McCulley pulled in front of the oncoming train. There were not any blinking lights or arms at the crossing, he said.

“It’s marked with signs and painted road crossings and the trains sound their horns at every crossing. It was not CSX’s fault.”

McCulley was pronounced dead at the scene by Knox County Coroner Mike Blevins. The body was sent to Frankfort for an autopsy.

Blevins said McCulley suffered from internal injuries.

“She really didn’t have a skinned place on her,” he said. “I really don’t know what happened to her. The track wasn’t obscured by trees. That’s why we sent her for an autopsy. The engineer said she pulled up and hesitated like she was going to stop, but she came across in front of him. I guess she thought she could make it.”

Blevins said the engineer sounded his horn.

“Trains have more black boxes and stuff on it than a jet airplane has,” he said. They can tell the speed, what distance the horn was sounded in, what distance it took to stop — it’s all on video camera.”

Blevins also said the track has a little bit of a curve. He said the train had gotten off a set of scales a short distance away and could not have been going full speed at the time of the crash.

“They’ve got a 10 mph speed limit on them and he was starting to pick his speed back up,” he said. “The speed limit through there is 40 mph, but he wasn’t anywhere near 40 mph. He was lucky if he was in his 30s.

The crash is still under investigation by Trooper Sowders.

Assisting at the scene were Knox County EMS and West Knox Volunteer Fire Department.

Staff writer Carol Mills can be reached at cmills@sentinel-echo.com

Text Only

Local News

Search Results

Lily woman dies in Knox County train wreck Knox County

How will you spend Memorial Day weekend?

Site Map

Contact Us