Dekyi Mitchell, Deniya Brown, and Shermika Herbert
Car and train collide taking lives of mother and 2 children
Contributed By:The 411 News
Driver attempted to go around lowered CSX rail crossing gates in Miller neighborhood
A mother and her 2 children died when their vehicle was struck by a train. The accident happened just before 7:30am Tuesday, November 16 at the CSX rail crossing of Miller Avenue and Howard Street in Gary’s Miller section.
Inside the car were the driver, 37-year-old Shermika Herbert, 5801 Kennedy Terrace, Gary and her 2 passengers – daughter, Deniya Brown, age 11 and son Dekyi Mitchell, age 13.
A witness to the crash told ABC-7 News that she was driving her son to school. Tishri Williams said she stopped just as the rail crossing gates were coming down. One car drove around her and made it across the tracks; then another car came past.
“The train was right there. ‘There’s no way he’s going to beat this train,’ I said. Then he tried it,” Williams said. “I saw the car try to move away from the train, but the train hit the rear of the car. I saw the passengers thrown from the car.”
A distraught and crying Cathy Herbert, the mother and grandmother, was supported by family members as she spoke to NBC-5 News, “I expected to hear from her by 7:45. When I didn’t, I called and texted.” Herbert said she looked at her breaking news app and saw 3 people had been killed at a train crossing in Miller, “I knew it was her. I knew it was them.”
A Gary Police Dept. officer examines the crumpled vehicle
Story Posted:11/18/2021
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