LA CONCHITA : Driver of Pickup Truck Survives Collision With Train

An Agoura woman said she felt lucky to survive a collision with an Amtrak passenger train in La Conchita on Wednesday morning that sheared off the front of her pickup truck.

Chance Busik, 66, was uninjured in the 8:08 a.m. accident, which occurred when Busik turned off the Ventura Freeway at Santa Barbara Avenue to stop at a gas station, said Officer Staci Morse of the California Highway Patrol.

Busik said she was on her way to Santa Barbara to buy a load of crab and shrimp to sell at the Ventura Farmers Market. As she drove across the railroad tracks, the crossing arm lowered directly in front of her, blocking her way, Busik said, adding that she did not notice the warning lights.

When she backed up across the tracks, she backed into the second crossing arm and came to a halt with the front of her truck on the tracks, Busik said.

“If I’d known the barriers were wood, I could have backed right through to safety,” she said later.

“As it was, I stopped between what I thought were two metal barriers.”

An Amtrak passenger train slowed from 55 m.p.h. to 15 m.p.h. as it approached, but still struck the front end of Busik’s truck, spinning it around and dragging it about 80 feet, Morse said.

Busik said she was prepared for the worst.

“I thought, well, this is how I’m going to die.”

After the train and truck came to a rest, Busik said train personnel rushed to her aid.

“One man--I think he was the engineer--fell to his knees when he saw that I was uninjured,” Busik said. “A (CHP) officer told me she had braced herself to see the mangled remains of a body, and when she saw I was alive, threw her arms around me and hugged me.”

After the incident, Busik wondered if her life was spared for a purpose.

“Everybody is saying I should bet on the lottery tonight,” she said.