WAPELLO COUNTY – A North Carolina woman was life-flighted to the University of Iowa Hospital following an accident involving a train in rural Wapello County yesterday afternoon.

According to traffic records, yesterday afternoon at around 4:40pm, 57-year-old Juan Torres Juarez of Hope Mills, North Carolina, was driving a Buick Park Avenue southbound on 215th Avenue south of US Highway 34. The vehicle approached a railroad crossing and failed to yield to a train passing through the intersection, and the train struck the vehicle as it entered the railroad crossing.

A woman in the front passenger seat, 57-year-old Maria Laura Juarez of Hope Mills, North Carolina, was injured and transported to the University of Iowa Hospital by air. The driver, as well as a passenger in the rear, were uninjured.

The Wapello County Sheriff’s Office was assisting on scene.