State Police say an Appomattox woman drove onto the Norfolk Southern tracks in front of an oncoming NS passenger train this morning – and the driver was killed when the train struck her vehicle. 65-year-old Karen Sauers was pronounced dead at the scene. It happened late this morning at the Church Street crossing by the former train depot, now the Appomattox Visitor Information Center. No one on the train was injured.
The train involved was not an Amtrak passenger train. It is a Norfolk-Southern-owned train usually referred to as an office or executive train which has passenger cars that the railroad uses for its own purposes. Police say it was headed from Norfolk to Roanoke.
From State Police: At 10:48 a.m. Wednesday (May 1), the Virginia State Police responded to a fatal crash in the Town of Appomattox. A passenger vehicle crossing the railroad tracks on Route 727 was struck by a Norfolk-Southern passenger train. The driver of the passenger vehicle died at the scene. No one on the train was injured. The train has already continued on its way. The crash remains under investigation. State police is still in the process of notifying next of kin.
