5 teens killed trying to beat Amtrak train at Canton Twp. crossing

Police say five teens are dead after they drove around a crossing gate and were hit by an Amtrak passenger train this afternoon.

"It's very tragic, certainly for the family and friends of the people of the people in the vehicle, but also for our crew," Chicago-based Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said. "There's nothing they can do … to stop vehicles from disregarding warnings about an approaching train."

He said there were no indications of any malfunction on the train before the collision at 12:10 p.m.

Witnesses said the teens were headed northbound on Hannan Road between Michigan Avenue and Van Born when they went around crossing gates lowered at the railroad tracks, Canton Township Police Sgt. Craig Wilsher said.

The train pushed the teens' car 150 feet to the Lotz Road crossing, and the victims were dead at the scene, he added. No one has reported problems with the crossing gates recently, Wilsher said.

The train had five passenger cars plus engines at the front and back. Officials had put a tarp across the wrecked auto at the front of the train.

Magliari said the system's train 353 was headed to Chicago from Detroit and Pontiac with 170 passengers and four crew when the crash happened.

Magliari said no one aboard the train was injured, and passengers were to be transferred this afternoon to another train for Chicago.

Magliari said the passengers would be taken by charter bus from the crash scene to Ann Arbor. There, they will be put aboard another train. He said an eastbound train from Chicago to Detroit would be stopped in Ann Arbor and its passengers taken to their stops by bus.