PORTLAND, Maine - A man who police say drove his car around a line of waiting cars at a train crossing and collided with a moving Amtrak Downeaster train this morning in Portland is in the hospital being treated for non-life-threatening injuries.
Derso Mekonen had two children who weren't his own in the back of his car when he hit the train. The collision crushed the front of the car, but left the five- and nine-year-olds uninjured. They've since been returned to their mother.
Portland Police Lt. Robert Martin says, given the circumstances, it's lucky the collision wasn't much worse.
"There could have been pedestrians on the sidewalk, there could have been other vehicles struck by the car as it was being sent across the pavement," he says. "It was heavy traffic at that time of day. If he had delayed his stop just a few more feet, we could have been talking something much more serious, including fatality."
Martin says police are investigating, and they'll make a decision when that's completed about whether to file charges. Martin says there's no evidence at this point that Mekonen was driving under the influence.
