TRE train was traveling under speed limit when crash with dump truck killed 2, sent 11 to hospital

Updated at 10:45 a.m. Aug. 27: Revised to include information about the train's speed.

A fiery collision between a dump truck and a Trinity Railway Express killed two people in the truck Saturday and injured several people on the train, two of them critically.

The crash was reported about noon in the 12500 block of Calloway Cemetery Road in far East Fort Worth, an area between north Arlington and Euless.

The truck was struck by the westbound train and burst into flames, killing two people inside, according to Fort Worth fire spokesman Mike Drivdahl.

The two victims were Arnell Deon Tolliver, 49, and Charlene Alexander, 50.

Dallas Area Rapid Transit spokesman Morgan Lyons said the crossing arms were down when the crash happened.

"Our trains do not take more than a few seconds to get through an intersection," Lyons told KXAS-TV (NBC5). "There is nothing — nothing — on the other side of that intersection that is worth risking your life."

The train was operating with the standard two-person team of a conductor and an engineer, traveling at 74 mph, Lyons said.

The DART spokesman added that the TRE is authorized to travel at speeds up to 79 mph in that area.

Firefighters from Fort Worth, Euless and Arlington were called to the scene, and several ambulances were dispatched.

Eleven people on the train were hospitalized, including two who were in critical condition and three others with serious but not life-threatening injuries, authorities said.

The collision blew out windows on the passenger cars and damaged the front of the locomotive, which came to a stop about a half-mile from the intersection.

Paramedics checked out half of the 50 people aboard the train, some of them with bumps and bruises.

TRE passengers were taken off the train and bused to a nearby strip club to use the restroom and cool off before a bus shuttle arrived to take them to Fort Worth.

Passengers were told that shuttle buses will replace the trains until the tracks can be replaced.

Witness Tirone Gray, of Pleasant Grove, said he was sitting next to the locomotive and felt "everything" at the point of impact.

"There was dust and rocks came in; the windows were busted," said Gray, 39. "My original thought was that the train was going to roll."

Gray saw his fellow passengers holding their heads and lying on the ground.

"I was just in the middle of it all," he said.

MedStar Mobile Healthcare spokesman Matt Zavadsky said a train accident like this has "not happened in this area for a long time."

"This was a very tragic crash," he said. "But everybody worked really well together, and it came out to as good of an outcome as we could have had."

Zavadsky gave high-fives to the MedStar team in the Cabaret East parking lot as the shuttle to Fort Worth pulled away.

"Right after an incident like this, we often try to do a debriefing and review the incident to see if there were things we could have done better," he said. "In the particular case, we were congratulating all of the people that were part of this very unique situation."

Another TRE passenger, Aaron Gillespie of Dallas, said he was riding on the top level of the rail car when the truck and train collided.

"Immediately, there was fire," said Gillespie, 57. "It took about half a mile for the train to stop. When it stopped, I went downstairs and saw all the people that were hurt. The truck knocked the windows and panels in."

Gillespie, who is originally from Fort Worth, said he's never experienced troubles on the train.

"I take it all the time," he said. "I just thank God it didn't come off the tracks."

Dallas Area Rapid Transit says the accident will cause delays on the TRE. A bus bridge was set up to shuttle passengers between Centreport and the T&P Station in downtown Fort Worth.

Breaking News editor Matt Peterson contributed to this report.