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By VINCE LATTANZIO (nbc10.com)

 

A woman was rushed to the hospital after her car was hit by a SEPTA regional rail train.

The collision happened at Indian Queen Lane and Cresson Street in the East Falls section of Philadelphia at 7:15 p.m. Thursday, police said.

A Norristown-bound SEPTA R6 train filled with 250 people was nearing the East Falls station when it hit the woman’s car as it crossed the tracks.

The small, silver Toyota was thrown several feet and landed on its roof in pieces. It also knocked two parked cars back onto Cresson Street when it landed.

“The train hit her on the driver’s side and she flipped — the car litterally went up in the air — and landed on those two cars over there,” witness Tariq Nasir said. “We almost thought it was a movie.”

Nasir and other witnesses say the woman was crossing over the tracks when the car got stuck between railroad crossing arms that had dropped.

Scores of firefighters and police worked to pull the unidentified 61-year-old woman from the mangeled car.

Witnesses clapped as the conscious woman was loaded into an ambulance. She was rushed to Temple University Hospital for treatment, police said. Her condition is unknown, but she was admitted as a trauma patient.

Jackie Johnson was preparing to get off the commuter train when it hit the car.

“It was a really big impact,” she said. “It was the loudest sound I’ve ever heard. I thought the train was gonna derail.”

Johnson said passengers didn’t know what had happened until they got off the train and saw the destroyed Toyota.

“Some people were praying and hoping the best for the woman,” she said.

Luckily, no one on the train was injured, but some were stranded in the neighborhood for hours.

“So I just took the train people some dinner because they’re not from the area,” Johnson said.

Service was resumed on the R6 Norristown line just before 9 p.m., SEPTA officials said.

Police say they’re investigating whether the woman intentionally tried to beat the train. If that turns out to be the case, she may be cited.

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