INDEPENDENCE, Mo. -- Police blocked Missouri Highway 7 for just over an hour Thursday afternoon to clear wreckage from a crash involving an SUV and a train.
A spokesman for Independence police says the SUV was southbound on Highway 7 at about 5 p.m. when it apparently did not stop for the activated lights and crossing arm at the railroad tracks just south of Bundschu Road.
The SUV bent but did not break the arm before coming to a stop on the tracks. That's when a freight train, travelling about 40 miles-per-hour, struck the front end of the vehicle.
The SUV spun and went off the road.
Two people were in the SUV. Police say an 82-year-old woman was driving and a 99-year-old man was her passenger. The woman was transported to an area hospital by helicopter ambulance, the man was transported by ground ambulance. The nature of their injuries was not immediately known.
The highway was reopened at about 6:30 p.m.
