Train and car collide at Gunter's Reed Lane crossing, closing the track

A car and a train collided at the Reed Lane railroad crossing in Gunter, sending two people for medical treatment and stopping trains on the line, Gunter Volunteer Fire & Rescue said. The department said the track stayed closed while the crash was investigated and the scene was cleared, an interruption on rail that runs through the country south of Cooke County.

The department said its crews and Allegiance Mobile Health were dispatched at 5:21 p.m. to what it described as a major crash between a car and a train. Both patients were carried out with injuries the department described as not life-threatening.

That account does not give a calendar date, identify anyone involved, explain how the collision happened, or say when the track reopened. No other agency record was available for this report.

Gunter grew up on the railroad. The city's history page records that Jot Gunter proposed a line from Sherman to Carrollton in January 1901, that freight first moved out of the Gunter Ranch depot that October, and that an excursion train ran from Sherman to Fort Worth in March 1902.

Rail development has moved through the city's public meetings in recent years. City Council minutes from May 18, 2023 record a presentation by Gary Laffoon of BNSF Railway and a 4-0 vote approving a development agreement with the railroad, contingent on landscaping work with staff. Planning and Zoning minutes from June 8, 2023 record citizen comments opposing BNSF and the closure of Strawn Road, and a director's report that the city wanted to continue a rezoning case to July. A city notice later that month said BNSF planned a logistics center of about 900 acres, the railroad's second such site in Texas, to move industrial products or farm commodities by carload or trainload. BNSF said it broke ground with city officials on March 12, 2026 for Logistics Center North Dallas, a 944-acre industrial park near State Highway 289 with direct rail service.

Federal records list multiple BNSF crossings in Gunter. The Federal Railroad Administration's current inventory shows 17 BNSF highway-rail crossing records in the city, totaling 8 roadway gate arms and 15 flashing-light pairs across those records. Gunter has more listed crossings than Prosper and fewer than Celina. One private crossing in that file, No. 672094H, is listed with 12 through trains a day at a 40 mph maximum timetable speed, and with no gate arms and no flashing lights.

FRA data show Texas crossing incidents rose from 191 in 2020 to 262 in 2025, with higher totals in some intervening years. Crossing deaths nationally climbed from 220 in 2020 to 314 in 2025, the same data show. Among neighboring counties in 2025, the federal figures list two incidents in Collin County, three in Denton County and two in Grayson County, and no Cooke County line. The agency's 2026 Texas numbers remain partial.