NORTH ANDOVER — A Methuen man said he accidently drove his car onto commuter rail tracks where it became stuck and had to abandon the vehicle before it was struck minutes later by an Amtrak train last night.
Police and Amtrak officials said nobody was hurt in the accident, but evening rush-hour train service was delayed while the car sat wedged under the side of the train for more than an hour.
Jon Itarelli, 20, and Dan Arsenault, 18, both of Methuen, identified themselves as the driver and passenger, respectively.
"We thought the train tracks were the street," Arsenault said after the 5:42 p.m. crash at the downtown railroad crossing at North Main and Ashland Streets.
A tow truck driver from Trombly's removed the vehicle from under the train at 6:56 p.m., and police cleared the scene at 7:51 p.m.
Arsenault said he and Itarelli were heading to the Lawrence Commuter Rail station when they took the wrong exit off Interstate 495 and ended up in downtown North Andover. They drove down North Main Street with the intent of turning left onto Ashland Street in order to head back toward Lawrence, Arsenault explained.
Itarelli said he turned too early while driving through the railroad crossing and he ended up getting his 2002 Pontiac Grand Prix stuck on the tracks, which run parallel to Ashland Street.
"By the time we realized it was the tracks, it was too late, we were already half onto it," Arsenault said.
The car wouldn't budge, so the men left it and ran to a nearby gas station to call for help, they said.
"I wasn't going to get hit by a train tonight," Arsenault said.
Arsenault's cell phone battery was low, so he asked a man at the gas station to use a phone, but the man wouldn't let him and Arsenault ended up using his own phone to call 911, he said.
"We could hear the train coming, we needed to get someone to stop the train or something, but it was too late by then," Arsenault said.
The northbound commuter train hit the car and dragged it a couple feet, leaving the front end of the Pontiac stuck under the side of one of the passenger cabins after the train came to a stop, Arsenault said.
Karina Romero, a spokeswoman for Amtrak, said there were 48 passengers on the train that hit the car — train No. 685. The train was heading from Boston to Portland, Maine. They were delayed two hours and 10 minutes. A northbound Amtrak train behind 685, No. 687, was delayed an hour. That train had 27 passengers on board, Romero said.
Train 685 sustained only "minimal" damage, Romero said.
"We had a mechanical officer out there. He inspected the train, deemed it was safe and it continued on to Portland," Romero said.
Amtrak police and North Andover police are investigating.
"Pending further investigation, charges could be filed," said North Andover police Sgt. John Pickard.
MBTA service between the Andover and Haverhill stations was delayed 30 to 45 minutes, the MBTA Web site said.
Investigators will use the train's black box to determine how fast the train was going and when the engineer activated the brakes, Romero said.
The speed limit for the tracks in that area is 60 mph, so it's likely the train was traveling about that speed prior to the crash, Romero said.
A neighbor, Marija Kncev, witnessed the crash and said the area around the railroad crossing is poorly lit.
"It was something that could have happened to me if I was in an area I wasn't acquainted with," she said.
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