Man Identified in Car-Train Accident in Lincoln

A car versus train collision early Thursday morning has killed a Lincoln man. Police say the man was on his way to work when he drove around the cross bars and was hit by an oncoming Amtrak train.

It all happened at a crossing early Thursday morning. Police were on the scene for almost 6 hours trying to piece together the events that left a Lincoln man dead. Lincoln Police officer Katie Flood said it all happened a little before 6 a–m at the railroad tracks at west “A” and Southwest 6th street.

At that time Marcus Johnson was opening up the Kabredlo’s store just down the street from the scene, “noticed the train coming Amtrak train coming southwest like it normally does in the morning didn’t really think anything of it went back in the store to turn the lights on when I came back up front the emergency vehicles were already headed to the scene,” Johnson said.

Police say there were several cars waiting at the crossing as an Amtrak train approached. Witnesses say they saw Huy Nguyen maneuvering around their vehicles and driving onto the tracks. Several witnesses reported the crossing arms were down lights were flashing one driver choose to go around these crossing arms he was struck by a train traveling north bound.

Police say Nguyen was ejected from the vehicle and pronounced dead at the scene he was the only person in the car at the time of the crash. Gloria Van Hook who lives near the tracks said she heard the collision but didn’t realize what had happened until later.  “Prior to the crash I was sitting on the front porch and I heard them screeching around the corner so I thought they were on a high speed chase but I realized they hit a train,” Van Hook said.

Police say Nguyen was headed to work at Lester Electrical and said their not sure why he disobeyed the crossing arms and lights signaling a train was coming. Police said the train was going about 60 m.p.h when they activated their emergency brakes hitting Nguyen’s car at about 50 m.p.h.  Amtrak reported there was no injuries to any of the passengers or crew aboard the train as a result of the collision.