BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Two women are dead and four juveniles are recovering after a minivan they were riding in was struck by a freight train in the 1000 block of 24th Street Southwest when investigators say the driver went around a lowered crossing arm early Friday morning.
The Jefferson County Coroner’s Office identified the women as Carolyn Elaine Berry, 47, and Aldereka Laqulla Ikes, 36, both of Birmingham. Berry was pronounced dead on the scene, while Ikes was taken to UAB Hospital, where she was later pronounced dead, authorities said.
Birmingham police said officers were called about 1:45 a.m. to a report of a vehicle versus train crash and arrived to find the minivan overturned beside the tracks and badly damaged.
The van was carrying six people — the two women and four children — when it was hit by the train after bypassing the lowered crossing arm, according to Birmingham police and the coroner’s office.
Three of the children were taken to Children’s of Alabama with injuries and are expected to recover; a fourth was evaluated at the scene, officials said.
Police said a witness pulled the children from the wrecked van before first responders arrived.
The Birmingham Police Department’s crash reconstruction unit is investigating what led up to the collision, including the vehicle’s movement around the warning devices at the crossing.
Coroner’s officials said there have been no recent train-vehicle fatalities in the city, but police stressed that the incident is a reminder that one moment of impatience at the tracks can change multiple lives.
Rail safety advocates say the Birmingham crash reflects a wider danger at crossings in Alabama, which ranked among the top states for rail-crossing collisions in recent years.
The Alabama Department of Transportation reported 83 rail-crossing collisions statewide in 2023, resulting in 33 injuries and nine deaths, and notes that more than 60% of such crashes happen at crossings already equipped with lights or gates.
Operation Lifesaver, a national rail safety nonprofit that works with ALDOT, warns that trains often appear to be moving slower or farther away than they actually are and can take a mile or more to stop, depending on speed.
The group’s safety campaigns urge drivers to obey crossing arms and flashing lights every time, calling driving around lowered gates both illegal and potentially deadly.
In Birmingham, federal and local officials have been working to improve safety at rail crossings, including an $8 million federal grant awarded in 2023 to help the city address dangerous and blocked Norfolk Southern crossings in residential areas.
Even with those upgrades, transportation officials say the most important safety measure is the choice drivers make when they approach the tracks: if the gates are down or the lights are flashing, a train is coming, and the only safe move is to wait.