Train Hits Motorist in Oxnard
A 63-year-old woman remained in critical condition Monday after her car was struck by a train a day earlier in Oxnard, officials said.
Sheldeen Germaine Osborne of Lafayette, in Northern California, was heading south on Vineyard Avenue about 3 p.m. Sunday when she drove onto the railroad tracks and stayed there as an Amtrak Surfliner approached.
The driver of the car directly behind Osborne told authorities that “the flashing red lights and the bells were going,” said Maria Pena, an Oxnard Police Department traffic investigator. “For some reason she just kept going onto the tracks. She made no effort to get out of the way.”
The train was traveling at full speed when it hit the right rear of Osborne’s 2004 Pontiac Grand Am, which was in the center lane. The Grand Am was pushed onto another car, but the driver of that vehicle escaped with minor injuries.
Osborne is being treated for brain injuries, a broken pelvis and arm, and several broken vertebrae at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles.
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