–A teenage driver and a 12-year-old passenger had to be airlifted after their car was struck by a train in northern Kossuth County Tuesday afternoon.
According to the Kossuth County Sheriff’s Office, a 911 call was received at 3:53 PM Tuesday reporting the collision just south of Iowa Highway 9 along 190th avenue, on the northeast city limits of Lakota. The accident report states that a 2004 Chevy Impala carrying the 16-year-old driver and passenger, both from the Lakota/Buffalo Center area, was southbound on 190th avenue when it was struck by an eastbound Union Pacific train.
The train initiated an emergency stop, and the vehicle ended up a short distance to the east of the intersection, where it started on fire shortly after the collision.
Sheriff’s officials identified a Lakota man, Alex Horak, as the individual who witnessed the incident and immediately called 911. Horak was also able to get the occupants out of the car before it became fully engulfed in flames while it was next to rail cars that were fully loaded with ethanol.
Highway 9 Fire, consisting of Swea City, Ledyard, and Lakota Fire Departments arrived at the scene an extinguished the blaze. Kossuth County and Lakota EMS were paged to the scene and initiated Auto-Launch. Air Care out of Waterloo responded to the scene and transported the driver to Rochester. The passenger was initially taken to Kossuth Regional Health Center in Algona where Air Med 2 out of Des Moines flew him to Rochester.
Both boys suffered head and upper body injuries and are currently at St. Mary’s Hospital in Rochester.
The accident remains under investigation.
