CAMARILLO : Woman Dies When Car Is Hit by Train

A 78-year-old Camarillo woman was killed Sunday when she drove her car into the path of an oncoming Amtrak passenger train at the railroad crossing on Las Posas Road at 5th Street near Camarillo, authorities said.

Investigators for the California Highway Patrol said the woman, identified as Phyllis Gilbert, was traveling south on Las Posas shortly before 10 a.m. when she drove under a lowered train gate and onto the railroad tracks.

“From what witnesses told us, it appears she locked up her brakes and slid though the gate and stalled on the tracks,” CHP Officer Brad Prows said. “She was trying to restart the vehicle when the train hit.” Prows said Gilbert may have been distracted by the traffic light, which witnesses said was green although the train gate was lowered and the red warning lights were flashing.

The train engineer, Charles Hartsfield, said he pulled the emergency brake to avoid the collision, but it was too late. He estimated that the westbound train was traveling about 60 m.p.h. when it hit Gilbert’s car, which exploded into flames as the train pushed it 200 feet down the tracks.

Coroner’s investigator Craig Stevens said Gilbert, a widow, was apparently en route to Camarillo State Hospital to visit her developmentally disabled son.

She is survived by daughter Diane Salisbury of Camarillo, the son at the hospital and a son who lives in Sacramento.