Victims names in Golden Valley train-vehicle collisions

KINGMAN – Three Mohave County residents occupying two vehicles – a jeep and a pickup truck – were killed in a collision with a freight train in Golden Valley on Sunday, April 4.

The Mohave County Sheriff’s Office wrote in a news release that at 2:42 p.m. deputies arrived on scene and observed that two vehicles had been hit by a train. All three occupants of the two vehicles were pronounced deceased at the scene.

The dead have been identified as Kingman resident Larry Whatley, 72, who was the occupant of the Jeep, and Virginia Voyles, 49, and Wesley Hoagland, 54, occupants of the involved truck and residents of Mohave County.

The investigation revealed that the vehicles were stopped at the railroad crossing while waiting for a passing eastbound train at milepost crossing 528.6 near the Griffith Road exit of I-40 in Golden Valley.

After the eastbound train passed, the vehicles began crossing the intersection, not seeing an approaching westbound train.

The investigation is ongoing.