One woman is lucky to be alive after her car was hit by a train.

It happened Tuesday evening along Ravenswood Avenue in Menlo Park. The woman apparently got stuck in traffic on the Caltrain tracks and was hit by a train doing nearly 80 miles per hour.

According to the Menlo Park Fire Protection District, a woman in her 30s was driving alone in her Honda Civic westbound on Ravenswood Avenue Tuesday evening when she got caught in a traffic backup.

Her car was left partially sitting on the Caltrain tracks. 

Moments later, the train crossing signal turned on and the arms started to drop. The driver apparently honked her horn, but the cars ahead of her didn’t move.

Her Civic was struck in the rear by a southbound train traveling nearly 80 miles per hour. The vehicle spun around and landed parallel to the tracks.

First responders arriving on scene found the woman shaken up and complaining of neck pain. She was taken to the hospital but is expected to be OK. The car suffered heavy damage.

Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time there has been a problem at this intersection. Back in 2015, a woman was killed when her car got stuck on the tracks in a very similar way.

The intersection is also notorious for problems because it is the convergence point of multiple lanes of traffic, multiple crosswalks, driveways, businesses, and a Caltrain station.

A neighbor says the intersection makes them nervous.

Menlo Park’s fire chief said in a statement that he has long been frustrated by this intersection, saying “this should have been improved years ago but the debate on how to fix this crossing has gone on for decades.”

The chief also says that many different ideas have been suggested over the years, including tunneling Ravenswood under the tracks and rerouting traffic to other crossings, but there currently no plans in the works to move forward with any of those ideas.

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