A 22-year-old Durham man was killed Saturday afternoon when the Honda sedan he was driving crashed into a CSX freight train at a Main Street railroad crossing in Lucama, a small Wilson County town where the gate arms were reportedly down and functioning normally at the time. Bryant Hardy died at the scene, and the crash remains under investigation as authorities try to determine why he did not stop.
According to WRAL, the collision happened before 12:30 p.m. Saturday near the railroad tracks by Main Street. The North Carolina State Highway Patrol said Hardy was traveling roughly 25 mph and did not stop before reaching the crossing, instead crashing through the lowered arm and into the side of the southbound train, which had already traveled about halfway across the intersection. The train’s engineer reportedly told officials he did not initially realize the train had struck a car, and the train did not come to a stop until it had traveled a few miles further down the line.
Crossroads Volunteer Fire Department, Wilson County EMS, the Wilson County Sheriff’s Office and CSX all responded to the scene, per the same account. The Highway Patrol confirmed the crossing arms were down and operating properly at the time of the crash, though investigators have not said why Hardy’s car entered the crossing anyway — a detail that remains unresolved as the investigation continues.
A Second Lucama Rail Collision in Less Than Two Weeks
Saturday’s fatality was not the first vehicle-train collision near Lucama this summer. Just 11 days earlier, on July 28, a farm truck stalled on the tracks nearby and was struck by an Amtrak train, though that driver survived, according to The Wilson Times. Lucama itself is a rural community of just 892 residents, according to 2020 Census data cited in the N.E.W. Regional Hazard Mitigation Plan, sitting directly along CSX’s active main rail line — a corridor that, according to CSX, carries an average of 1,848 freight trains a day across the company’s 20,000-mile network…