Third Teen Dies From Nowata Train Accident

Sunday, December 5th 1999, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

A Nowata car-train accident has claimed a third life. Cristal Horton, 18, died Saturday in the intensive care unit at Tulsa Regional Medical Center. The Nowata High School student had been unconscious since the Nov. 28 accident. Ms. Horton was the third Nowata teen-ager to die from the accident.

A nursing supervisor at St. John Medical Center said John Brown,15, remains in critical condition in the intensive care unit there. Ryan Kalbrier, 17, and Terry Royer, 16, died in the accident.

The four NHS students were celebrating Kalbrier's 17th birthday. Kalbrier was driving when his Ford Mustang was struck by a northbound Union Pacific freight train at a downtown Nowata railroad crossing. The intersection is one of several in Nowata that do not have warning lights and a crossing arm.

The Nowata police said the four occupants were thrown from the car. The vehicle was pushed about 30 feet north of the intersection of Modoc Avenue and the railroad tracks. It came to rest against a heavy fence that runs parallel to the track. The police were not sure if the impact of the train or hitting the fence caused the teen-agers to be ejected from the car.

The engineer and conductor on the train reported that they didn't see the car until it was in front of the engine.