PLANT CITY, Fla. (WFLA) — Jennifer Cantu was waiting at a party for her nephew, his girlfriend and five others Saturday night. He texted her and asked her to save a seat. “We were actually at the Quinceañeras, we were waiting on him,” said Cantu.
But he never arrived.
“We noticed a couple of moments later that there was an accident and we thought he was stuck behind the accident,” said Cantu.
Her nephew, Guillermo Gama, is the only survivor from a crash that killed six others. He is fighting for his life and now Cantu and others say a crossing gate needs to be installed where the crash took place.
“Honestly, when we go it’s just a very small pause because we don’t see any lights or anything either. It can be kind of like a bad spot,” said Cantu.
In a statement on the crash a spokesperson for CSX says, “Determination of whether active warning devices are installed is made by the local authorities.”
A spokesperson for Hillsborough County says they don’t have the authority to require a private property owner to install a crossing gate at a rail crossing.
There is a small and growing memorial at the rail crossing. There was another accident at the location in February of 2021.
Jasmine Ford was killed at the same location, her father says she was a delivery driver for Amazon at the time. He too would like to see a crossing gate installed at the location, to prevent more tragedies.