Teens walk away from collision with train
<p>Mike Dawson, left, and his daughter, Rachel Dawson, 17, talk to Post Falls Police Department after Rachel and a passenger slid off the road into the train tracks due to icy conditions on North Spokane Street in Post Falls on Thursday afternoon.</p>
POST FALLS - Rachel Dawson and Sky Lehti were scared for their lives as they slid down an icy hill and into a moving train on Thursday afternoon.
The teens walked away uninjured from the vehicle's collision with a westbound Union Pacific train on Spokane Street adjacent to the Prairie Falls Golf Club.
"I was going like, 10 mph down the hill and couldn't stop sliding," said Dawson, who was visibly shaken by the accident. "I didn't see the train at first. It was really scary."
Dawson, 17, of Post Falls, said the locomotive and the 2001 Hyundai Accent she was driving northbound approached the intersection around the same time. When she applied the brakes, the car slid and crossed over the southbound lane into the train.
The front end of the car stopped just short of the first rail of the tracks. The vehicle was totaled due to heavy front-end damage.
Lehti, Dawson's 16-year-old friend from Hauser, said the train continued moving for 3 minutes or so after the collision until it came to a stop.
"But it seemed like forever," Lehti said.
Police said the vehicle struck the second or third train car after the locomotive.
Dawson called her father, Mike, after the accident. He was sleeping because he works a graveyard shift, but rushed to the scene.
"I just thank God that they're fine," he said. "Cars can be replaced - daughters can't."
Post Falls police Chief Scot Haug said the first few weeks of icy roads can catch a lot of motorists off guard.
"It was extremely slick today," he said. "You even have a hard time standing up on this street."
Haug said the teens are fortunate to walk away from the accident.
"This could have easily been a much different circumstance," he said.