Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, July 10, 1990                   TAG: 9007100370
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CALVERTON                                LENGTH: Medium

CAR DRIVER KILLED IN CRASH WITH TRAIN

WQRA in Warrenton quoted Virginia State Police on the scene who identified the victim as Fauquier County Deputy Sheriff Charles Murray, 26. Murray was on his way to serve a warrant when he was killed, the radio station reported.

The deputy's cruiser was sheared in half, the station reported.

The crossing is marked with a sign, but has no lights or electric arm to keep traffic off the tracks.

Neither the Fauquier sheriff's office nor state police dispatchers reached by telephone would confirm the victim's identity or release information about the accident.

Heard said none of the 350 passengers and crew members aboard the Amtrak Crescent was injured. The 18-car train did not derail.

The accident occurred at 8:08 p.m., Heard said. He said the train, which was not seriously damaged, was delayed by two hours. The train was en route from New York to New Orleans via Washington, D.C., and Mobile, Ala.

"It [the wreck] was smoking, and I thought it was a brush fire so I got out [of the car] to put it out," Dan Nissley Jr. told WQRA. "Then I noticed there were pieces of a car." Nissley was the first person on the scene aside from Amtrak employees, the station said.

"I seen the body lying over next to the bushes. One of the guys from the train came over and said it was an officer. Then we noticed a badge, a flashlight and some other things," Nissley said.

Heard could not say how fast the train was traveling. The maximum speed on that section of Norfolk Southern track is 79 mph, he said.