Fire & Police Briefs: Two killed when train hits car at crossing in Efland

By: JournalNow Staff | JOURNAL WIRE REPORT
Published: December 23, 2009

EFLAND -- Two people are dead and a baby is in the hospital after an Amtrak train hit a car at a North Carolina railroad crossing.

Authorities said that the car was crossing tracks yesterday morning in Efland, about 40 miles northwest of Raleigh.

Highway Patrol spokesman Sgt. Jeff Gordon said that the woman driving was killed along with a 5-year-old boy.

A 3-month-old girl was pulled from the wreckage and taken to UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill.

Her condition was not available.

Amtrak spokeswoman Tracy Connell in Washington said that none of the 215 passengers on the Carolinian was hurt.

She said that the train was headed to New York from Charlotte.

Brunswick authorities face suit over 2007 incident

WILMINGTON -- A North Carolina man says that sheriff's deputies in a coastal county stripped him naked, then pepper-sprayed and beat him after he was arrested.

Damien Guarniere of Erwin filed a lawsuit this month against Brunswick County, three deputies, former Sheriff Ronald Hewett in his official capacity, an Ocean Isle Beach police officer and the town.

Guarniere's lawsuit says that he was arrested in September 2007 and charged with driving while impaired despite a blood alcohol reading of 0.06, slightly below the legal limit of 0.08 percent.

The lawsuit says that he was stripped and placed in a jail cell, and when he protested, deputies pepper-sprayed him.

Chris Geis, the attorney for the county's insurance company, said that a sheriff's detective was the only one hurt in the incident.

N.C. woman held after escape bid in Georgia

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Georgia authorities say that a North Carolina woman wriggled out of her handcuffs and led police on a four-mile car chase after fleeing arrest in one of their patrol cars.

Ronda Renee Matthews of Hope Mills, N.C., surrendered to deputies after wrecking and damaging the patrol car.

The Richmond County Sheriff's Office said that Matthews, 37, was being arrested on a robbery charge when she broke out of her handcuffs, climbed into the front seat of the patrol car and drove away.

Officials have charged Matthews with armed robbery, stealing a motor vehicle, fleeing arrest and reckless driving, among other things.