Although police found some substances they suspect is marijuana with the victims, police say neither drugs nor alcohol played a role in the accident that claimed five young lives in the July 9 accident involving an Amtrak train and a 2006 Ford Fusion in Canton.
Details of the report filed by the Canton Police Department’s Accident Investigation Team, released Thursday afternoon by Canton Police, also showed the warning devices - the signals, gates and bells at the Hannan Road railroad crossing - were working when the Fusion, driven by Daniel Broughton of Woodhaven, tried to beat the train across the tracks just north of Van Born Road.
Broughton, 19, and Jessica Sadler, 14, of Wayne; brothers Sean Harris, 19, of Taylor and Terrence Harris, 21, of Stafford, Va.; and Eddie Gross, 17 of Taylor, all died instantly in the crash and were pronounced dead at the scene.
The Wayne County Medical Examiner performed autopsies on all five victims and said the cause of death was “consistent with injuries received during such a traumatic crash.” Autopsies showed no sign of alcohol in any of the victims, though Broughton had traces of nicotine and diphenhydramine, a common ingredient in medications like Benadryl, police said.
The investigation, which included inteviews with witnesses, information from the Fusion’s “black box,” and video footage from the security cameras of a local business and the video recorder on the front of the train, show Broughton was driving at nearly 70 mph north on Hannan, slowed to about 30 mph and pulled around an SUV already stopped at the railroad crossing, swerved into the other lane and attempted to cut around the gates.
The video camera from the train shows the car pulling into its path. The impact is then heard, and shards of glass can be seen flying up in front of the lens. It took the driver some 40 seconds to stop the train, which came to rest near Lotz.