RUMFORD – Railroad police summoned a Rumford woman at her house Thursday after she failed to see a flashing railroad crossing signal earlier that morning and drove into the path of a slow-moving train on NewPage Inc. property, Rumford police said.

Gwendolyn Sherwin, 83, of Oxford Avenue, who was shaken up but not injured in the accident, was charged with failure to stop and proceed cautiously at a railroad crossing, Patrolman Tracey Higley said. The summons is a violations-type offense that can be settled by paying a fine rather than going through the arraignment and courtroom process.

Sherwin, contacted by phone Thursday afternoon, declined comment about the accident or ticket.

Railroad police also declined to talk about the summons, and a railroad employee at the Rumford paper mill declined to talk about the incident or damage to the rail car tanker.

About 10:45 a.m., a Pan Am Railways engine was pushing a few freight cars and two tanker cars toward the mill. Higley, who was standing back to and near the train crossing getting information from drivers involved in a 10:22 a.m. accident near the tracks, said he never heard the second accident over the train noise.

“I was taking the report and I heard ding, ding, ding – the train crossing signal going off – and, I didn’t think anything about it,” Higley said.

He didn’t realize anything was seriously wrong until a truck driver caught his attention and told him the train hit a car. When he looked, Higley said he saw a white 1996 Lincoln Town Car against one of the white tanker cars, and climbed over the train to reach Sherwin.

“She said she never saw the lights and pulled out in front of the train. It almost flipped her over,” he said.

The first tanker hit the Lincoln’s front end, spun the car around and struck it again, pushing it about 30 feet from point of impact before the train stopped, blocking traffic, Higley said.

Rumford firefighters and a Med-Care Ambulance crew assisted Higley at the scene while Patrolman Lawrence Winson shut down the Route 108 end of Railroad Street. Mexico police and firefighters shut down the routes 2 and 17 end opposite Veterans Bridge over the Androscoggin River.

Adley’s Auto Sales of Rumford towed the Town Car, which didn’t look demolished, but Higley said he estimated that it was totaled due to its age and frame, which was probably bent.

“In speaking with the railroad police, they said it was a high-profile crossing. It is a busy intersection with a lot of train traffic,” the Rumford officer said.

Drivers involved in the 10:22 a.m. accident at the mill end of Veterans Bridge were Melody Stinchfield, 58, of Rumford, and Justin Guenette, 24, of Acushnet, Mass. Neither was injured. Higley said Guenette, driving a 2005 Ford F150 pickup truck, was inching out from the mill’s main entrance onto Railroad Street, and Stinchfield, driving a 1999 GMC, unsuccessfully tried to avoid hitting it. Damage to her vehicle was estimated at $500 to $600; to the Ford, $1,500 to $1,800.