The Jones County Sheriff’s Office Thursday afternoon identified the two female victims in a deadly train-car collision which occurred Wednesday evening south of Moselle. Investigators also said “black box” information from the Norfolk Southern train may not be available for two weeks.
Authorities identified the driver of the Honda Accord as Felecia Leann Harris, 17, of Hattiesburg, and the passenger as Destiny Gattis, 12. A spokesman for the sheriff’s office said a residence for the passenger has not yet been established. Investigators originally believed the passenger was the niece of the driver, but a spokesman for Sheriff Alex Hodge said Thursday the two were not related.
The two were fatally injured in a 4 p.m. car-train collision Wednesday at the North Eastabuchie Road railroad crossing south of Moselle on Highway 11 at the Jones-Forrest county line.
The area has been known for serious and sometimes fatal accidents. Crossing gates and lights were installed last year at a crossing south of Wednesday’s accident scene after several incidents of vehicle-train collisions.
“It could take up to two weeks to process video and other data from the train,” said Daniel Johnson, a railroad investigator with the Mississippi Department of Transportation. He said the information is contained in what he described as the train’s “black box,” similar to that of an airplane. Johnson said the information includes video, an audio recording of the engineer and others, horn, ditch light information, etc.
Johnson said the train was traveling at 48 mph at the time of the impact. “It was in full emergency mode,” Johnson said. “The engineer said he noticed the car around the time of impact, and it was traveling at a very low rate of speed up to the crossing, and made no attempt to stop.”
Johnson said members of the train’s crew were tested for drugs and alcohol in Meridian Wednesday night as part of standard operating procedure when a fatality is involved.
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Victims of car-train collision identified
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