The 89-year-old Orangeburg man involved in a collision with a train on Tuesday has died.

Officials say Jerry Welfare died around 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. His car was thrown across the four lanes of Magnolia Street following a collision with a Norfolk Southern train.

"Certainly we send our condolences to the family. This is a tragic situation, one that we want to avoid," Orangeburg Department of Public Safety Chief Wendell Davis said. "But we send our condolences for this tragic loss."

The collision happened at about 10:08 a.m. as Welfare made a turn off Magnolia Street onto the Peasley Street access crossing in front of Claflin University. A 50-car train loaded with car parts bound for Charleston then collided with the Bramble Lane man.

Investigators believe the crossing arm barriers came down around Welfare's 2002 Buick Century, enclosing the elderly man in between.

"We have a situation where he was trying to access the Peasley Street crossing and the arms came down on both sides, front and back," Davis said.

Welfare's death marks the fourth fatality at an Orangeburg rail crossing since the maximum train speed through the Garden City was increased to 49 mph. The maximum train speed was 15 mph until it was increased to 30 mph in Dec. 2000, and increased again in Feb. 2001.

There were 16 collisions at Orangeburg rail crossings between March 2001 and Tuesday. Three people have been killed in two crashes and a pedestrian was killed during a May 2006 mishap.

Prior to the increase in train speed, there were six train-car collisions between Jan. 1996 and Feb. 2000. After the increase to 30 mph, there were two accidents in December 2000. None of those accidents were fatal.

Susan Terpay, a Norfolk Southern spokesperson, explained that there are federal guidelines determining how close to an intersection or crossing a train can approach before activating a sensor connected to the railroad crossing arms.

"In fact, we always exceed that," Terpay said.

Police remain concerned about the number of instances where there have been close calls or outright collisions.

"We just have an inordinate amount of accidents along the Magnolia corridor," Davis said. "We have had an accident at practically every intersection along that corridor."

T&D Staff Writer Richard Walker can be reached by e-mail at rwalker@timesanddemocrat.com or by telephone at 803-533-5516. Discuss this and other stories on-line at TheTandD.com.

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