By LEONARD GRAY

NEW ORLEANS – LaPlace resident Amie Unglade, 17, continued to recover this week at Charity Hospital in New Orleans following an Oct. 28 train accident at the Northwest Third Street railroad crossing.

The Reserve Christian School student was a rear-seat passenger in a tan, four-door 2002 Mercury Grand Marquis which was struck by an eastbound train in Reserve. The impact spun the car and ejected Unglade from the vehicle, as she was not wearing a seat belt.

Donna Unglade said her daughter sustained two traumas to the head, a liver laceration, a small fracture in the neck which was stablized and a bruised lung.

“She progressing and responding really well,” Donna Unglade said.

There was no swelling in Amie Unglade’s brain, she was taken off a venilator Wednesday and a feeding tube was removed Thursday. She was listed in stable condition Friday, according to her mother.

The St. John the Baptist Parish Sheriff’s Office received the accident call around 10:27 p.m.

The southbound car was driven by Michael Nosacka, 17, of Gramercy. His front-seat passenger was Michelle LaRoze, 16, of Lutcher, and his other rear-seat passenger was Lyndon Pousson III, 15, of Reserve.

According to Capt. Michael Tregre of the sheriff’s office, the car had departed Sonic Drive-In Restaurant on Airline Highway in LaPlace and headed to drop off Pousson at his home on Annex Drive when the car approached the Kansas City Southern Railroad tracks at Northwest Third Street.

The crossing, like several others in the Reserve area, has little in the way of signal devices, with a railroad crossing sign only – no crossing gates, bells or lights. The train, with Prince Selvage, 53, of Metairie, at the controls, was traveling between 30 and 40 mph in a section of track with a 49-mph speed limit. The military transport train consisted of 82 cars and two engines.

Nosacka’s car tried to clear the tracks, as the driver did not see the train’s approach until he was already on the tracks. However, the train struck the right rear fender, just behind Unglade.

Nosacka, LaRoze and Pousson all received minor injuries and were treated at River Parishes Hospital in LaPlace and released.

They managed to remain in the vehicle after it was struck. Nosacka was cited for failure to yield at a railroad crossing.

Paul Oncale, St. John Parish’s director of civil defense and emergency preparedness, said the issue of closing smaller railroad crossings is a difficult one.

“I’ve been working on this for years,” he said. “If the railroad had its way, they’d close every one of them.”

Some Reserve residents have complained to him about the inconvenience they would have, should their neighborhood crossing be closed, forcing them to re-route to a main highway.

Similarly, when the Cardinal Street crossing in LaPlace was closed, numerous residents complained loudly enough, and it was reopened. A few days later, Oncale recalled, there was an accident involving a vehicle and a train.

“I could see maybe four crossings in Reserve – West 10th, West 19th, Central Avenue and at 3179,” Oncale said.

However, connector roads are being considered to connect and provide a new cross street, paralleling the railroad tracks, he added.

“But that’s years away,” he said.