Just weeks after separate train incidents resulted in the death of one man in Alton and another in Vandalia, three other train/vehicle incidents in Illinois have been reported since Wednesday.
 
On Thursday a mother and her toddler are being treated for serious injuries after their car was hit by a train in Sparta.
 
Police say a PT Cruiser driven by a 22-year-old woman was on the railroad tracks when it was struck by a Canadian National train hauling coal. The car was pushed about 200 yards.
 
The woman and a 2-year-old girl were taken to Sparta Hospital then each flown to hospitals in St. Louis with what are described as non life-threatening injuries.
 
Police say the crossing is marked with lights but not gates. The accident is still under investigation.
 
Also on Thursday, the driver of a truck went around gates at a railroad crossing in Pierron and was killed when a train hit his vehicle.
 
The southbound CSX train collided with the truck around 2 p.m. at the point where the tracks cross Route 143 in Pierron, a small town on the border between Madison and Bond counties.
 
Illinois State Police Trooper Calvin Dye said it appears the 35-year-old driver of the truck, Jon Schrage, of St. Rose, tried to beat the train.
 
Pieces of the 2006 truck littered the area around the crossing as officials tried to piece together what happened.
 
And on Wednesday, a man who may have mistaken Union Pacific Railroad tracks for a road Wednesday night near Columbia was arrested for driving under the influence after a northbound train collided with the car the man was driving.
 
According to Union Pacific spokesman Mark Davis, the train crew contacted railroad police around 10 p.m. after the train struck a car that was facing south on the tracks between Bottom Road and DD Road near Columbia.
 
Davis said the car caught fire on impact and crew members could not immediately locate the driver. First responders later located the driver, who was arrested.

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