Vehicle collides with train

Two people died in separate crashes recently and two more were critically injured when struck by a train.  

An Amtrak train struck a car in Callahan as the driver attempted to cross the tracks, leaving two Jacksonville residents with critical injuries. The collision occurred just before 8 p.m. Saturday. 

Deborice Harris, 26, was driving a 2007 Toyota Corolla eastbound on Brandies Avenue, approaching the railroad crossing with passenger Ricky Skelton, 31.

A 16-car Amtrak train was traveling northbound on the tracks. 

CSX officials advised that the crossing arms were already in the down position for 50 seconds when the Toyota continued across the tracks and was struck by the train, according to a Florida Highway Patrol media release. 

Harris and Skelton, who both wore seatbelts, were transported to UF Health Jacksonville. 

They were listed in critical condition Monday morning. 

Callahan resident Debbie King heard the sound of the collision. She and Steve Bennett live just a short distance away from the railroad crossing. 

“I was sitting here watching a movie,” King told the Record Monday afternoon. “I heard the hard metal crash. First, I went to see where it came from. It was a very loud noise. I have never heard anything like it before.”

She went outside and heard someone say, “They need help.” But she wasn’t sure who said it. It took nearly four hours to clear the accident, according to King.  

Bennett expressed concern about the lack of caution lights near the tracks. 

“They need to put better lights around there,” he said. “It’s extremely dark over there.” 

Two separate crashes resulted in fatalities in Nassau County within a 24-hour period. 

Log truck driver John Glendel Milton, 66, of Folkston, Ga. died Nov. 13 after the 1998 Peterbilt tractor-trailer he was driving left the roadway and overturned on its side just before 6 a.m. 

Milton was transporting logs in the left lane of A1A east of Piney Island Drive in Fernandina Beach. Shane Michael Brennan, 21, of Fernandina Beach was driving a 1997 Toyota 4Runner in the left lane of the westbound lanes of A1A east of Piney Island Drive. 

Milton’s tractor-trailer ran off the left side of the roadway and into the grassy median before it overturned on its left side, causing the logs to break loose and spill into the median and westbound lanes of A1A, according to the FHP media release. 

As a result, the front left section of Brennan’s Toyota hit the logs, causing the 4Runner to overturn once before coming to a final rest on its tires and partially blocking the inside eastbound lanes of A1A. 

Brennan, who was wearing a seatbelt, suffered minor injuries, according to the media release. 

The FHP could not confirm if Milton wore a seatbelt. 

In a crash on the East Side Nov. 12, Daniel James Walton, 34, died after the 2009 Yamaha XVS950A motorcycle he was operating struck a mailbox in Yulee. 

Walton was riding the motorcycle southbound on Blackmon Road when it traveled off the left side of the roadway and struck the mailbox. 

The Jacksonville resident was not wearing a helmet when he fell from the motorcycle just after 12:30 p.m. and was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the FHP media release.  

Toxicology results are pending in all three crashes, according to the FHP.