(GLEN CARBON, IL) — A 36-year-old Glen Carbon man is dead after driving around a set of crossing gates and accelerating head-on into the front of an approaching freight train. Witness accounts say Charles Wood first dropped his 4-year-old daughter off on the side of Ole Route 66 in Broadwell, Illinois, then drove his Mitsubishi Eclipse around the crossing gates and accelerated into the front of the train. Reports say his daughter witnessed the entire incident and was being comforted by strangers who also witnessed the incident before she was placed in the custody of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. Logan County Coroner Robert Thomas pronounced Wood dead at the scene from blunt-force trauma at 2:26 p.m. Friday. Toxicology tests are pending to see if Wood was under the influence of alcohol or drugs, at the time of the incident.

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