Driver charged in fatal train crash

A Baytown woman whose SUV was struck by an oncoming Amtrak train after witnesses said she skirted around idling cars and a railroad safety arm has been charged with manslaughter in the death of her passenger, authorities said.

Authorities believe the 32-yearold driver, Brittinie Green, acted recklessly by driving her BMWX3 onto the railroad tracks around 5 p.m. near the intersection of Sheldon Road and Beaumont Highway in northeastern Harris County, court records show. Her passenger, Rhonda Clay, was ejected from the vehicle and killed, authorities said.

Prosecutors believe Green drove around two stopped cars and the crossing arms in an attempt to beat the Los Angeles-bound passenger train. The crossing arms were down, signaling to motorists that a train was coming, authorities said. The impact mangled Green’s vehicle.

The train pushed the vehicle several hundred yards down the track, officials said. Witnesses in the waiting cars, after seeing the crash, rushed from their vehicles to check on the two women. Clay was found dead.

Green was conscious and airlifted to a hospital with serious injuries, officials said. She is expected to survive.

Sean Teare, head of the Harris County District Attorney’s Office’s vehicular crimes division, said

Green showed no signs of intoxication. A toxicology report from her blood sample is pending but could take months, he continued.

“It is never a good idea to try to beat a train,” Teare said. “Nothing is that important to get to where you’re going that quickly. Trains never lose those battles.”

None of the 45 passengers or crew members aboard the train, which had departed from New Orleans, were injured in the collision, according to Amtrak.

Green has been arrested at least twice since 2013 on misdemeanor charges, once for possession of marijuana and another time for assault of a family member.