NEAR LA PLATA, Mo. — A northeast Missouri woman was badly injured late Friday night when her SUV was struck by a BNSF freight train.
The crash happened just before 11 p.m. near Santa Fe Lake, about a half mile east of La Plata.
A Missouri state trooper told KTVO that, prior to the train coming along, a 43-year-old woman from La Plata was driving an SUV westbound on Cambridge Lane when she traveled off a curve and ended up on the railroad tracks.
The vehicle was hung up on the tracks, and that’s when a train came along and hit the SUV.
It ended up on its top on a second set of tracks.
The driver, who was the only person in the SUV, suffered serious injuries.
She was rushed by ambulance to a nearby helipad and then flown to University Hospital in Columbia, Missouri.
The trooper was not sure if the woman was wearing a seat belt when the crash happened.