TWO ORAN WOMEN DIE IN CAR-TRAIN CRASH

ORAN -- Aaron McGranahan watched the last few minutes of his mother's life Friday afternoon before she and a friend became the fifth and sixth people to die at a railroad crossing since 1957.

McGranahan was in a vehicle following the car in which his mother, Sylvia McGranahan, was riding with her best friend, Wanda Johns. He watched as both woman laughed and talked, and then pulled into the path of an oncoming Burlington Northern freight train.

Both McGranahan, 52, and Johns, 61, were killed instantly when the single-engine train broad-sided the passenger side of Johns' westbound car, sending the vehicle about 100 feet from the crossing and ejecting the women.

The accident happened at 1:15 p.m.

"I was supposed to pick her up from work," McGranahan said. "But Wanda must have offered her a ride. They flagged me down and waved at me on the street, so I turned around and was following them."

The women had crossed the track thousands of times because they lived on the side opposite the main part of Oran and the places they frequented such as the post office, grocery store, church and school.

The accident occurred at the Shelby Street crossing, one of three railroad crossings in Oran. It is one of two crossings in town without a warning light or gate, just a stop sign.

McGranahan said Johns stopped her car, looked both ways, and then drove onto the tracks.

"I heard the whistle when they drove onto the tracks," he said, "and then it just hit them, and they were gone. I don't think they ever saw the train."

The Missouri Highway Patrol said the train engineer, Vincent Cox, 33, of Cape Girardeau, wasn't injured.

Oran Police Chief Howard Stevens said McGranahan and Johns were the victims of a railroad crossing that has claimed four other people in the last 40 years.

The last person to die, William C. Coomer, 71, was killed May 5, 1994, when he pulled into the path of an oncoming train. In 1982, a pedestrian was killed at the same crossing.

McGranahan said the women died because of a lack of warning lights or gates at the crossing and because trains are allowed to travel too fast through the community of 1,200 people.

Stevens agreed: "We get quite a few complaints, and we've tried to get them to slow down. It just doesn't seem right that they can go that fast through town."

A spokesman for Burlington Northern said the speed limit for trains traveling through Oran is 55 mph.

A spokesman for the Highway Patrol said the patrol's initial accident report didn't indicate how fast the train was traveling.