POMPANO BEACH, Fla. – An SUV was struck by a train early Friday morning in Pompano Beach.
According to witnesses, a woman who was driving the vehicle was driving over the train tracks in the area of East Copans Road and North Dixie Highway when the train struck her SUV shortly after 4 a.m.
Although the SUV was totaled in the collision, witnesses said the driver did not appear to be seriously injured.
“She was just kind of in between the tracks and the road, and then the train just came and hit her,” one witness said. “I just ran to her and I tried to see if she was OK, but she was looking at me like she didn’t know what was going on.”
Another witness told Local 10 News that the SUV was smoking after the crash.
Authorities shut down the intersection to traffic during their investigation.
Broward Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Gerdy St. Louis confirmed that the driver wasn’t injured. She said the circumstances surrounding the crash are still being investigated.
According to witnesses, deputies were already in the area of 2700 North Dixie Highway when the incident occurred, investigating another crash that occurred earlier in the morning that involved a pedestrian.
BSO officials confirmed that Norval Howard, 40, of Pompano Beach, was heading north in a 2021 Chevrolet Silverado around 1:30 a.m. when he saw what he believed was an object in the road and drove over it.
Deputies said Howard then turned around to see what he had struck and realized that it was a pedestrian, later identified as 68-year-old Gregory Halowach.
He then positioned his vehicle in a way to prevent further impact to the victim and called 911, authorities said.
Deputies said that for unknown reasons, Halowach was lying in the right thru lane prior to being struck by the vehicle.
He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Detectives do not believe speed nor impairment were contributing factors to the cause of the crash.