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MENTONE - An Oaktown woman was killed Thursday when the car she was riding in was struck by a train near Mentone.
Virginia A. Spradlin, 76, was pronounced dead at the scene of the 4:10 p.m. accident on CR 1000W, 2,600 feet north of Ind. 25. She suffered massive internal injuries, according to Kosciusko County Coroner Larry Ladd.
Spradlin, a summer resident of Beaver Dam Lake, was a passenger in a car driven by her son, 55-year-old Jerry Spradlin of Anderson. He suffered bruises and was treated at Kosciusko Community Hospital and released.
According to a Kosciusko County Sheriff's Department report, Spradlin was northbound on CR 1000W when, for an unknown reason, he pulled across the railroad tracks in front of the westbound train. Impact was on the passenger side of the car; neither occupant was wearing a seat belt, but the car's driver-side airbag was activated.
Police said the 49-car, three-engine Norfolk Southern Railroad train was traveling between 48 mph and 50 mph when the accident occurred.
Gregory H. Mishler, 22, of Ossian, the train's conductor, told police that the train's horns and bells were activated prior to the impact. Neither Mishler nor the engineer, Anthony O. Ocha, 38, of Fort Wayne, was injured.
The accident remains under investigation.
