By Stephenie Steitzer
The Cincinnati Enquirer

A couple grieves for three members of a Walton family who died Tuesday afternoon when their stalled auto was struck by a train on Maher Road in Boone County. Bystanders said the man and woman are related to the family. (Patrick Reddy photo) | ZOOM |

A mother and her two young daughters were killed Tuesday afternoon when a train struck their stalled car on Maher Road in unincorporated Boone County south of Florence.

A 3-year-old son was flown to Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, where he was in critical condition Tuesday night.

The accident occurred when the family's 1991 Ford Probe stalled on the train tracks about 4:45 p.m., said Major Jack Banks of the Boone County Sheriff's Department.

Angela Nadler, 25, of Walton, and her husband, Kevin, 28, were outside the car trying to rescue the three children as the Norfolk and Southern train approached from the north.

Banks said the couple first tried to push the car off the tracks, then tried to get the children out.

Angela Nadler was hit by the car when the train hit it.

Kevin Nadler was not injured. Their two daughters, Faithe, 6, and Grace, 4, died on impact.

Banks said he did not know what type of injuries the Nadlers' son, Kevin, suffered. The boy was in the car when it was hit, but might have been strapped into a child safety seat that was still inside the car after the accident.

Banks said witnesses told him the warning lights at the intersection had begun flashing when Nadler drove onto the tracks. He said the family may have had as much as two minutes to react before the train, which was traveling about 45 mph, hit the car.

"This is a very, very tragic event," he said.

Banks said other accidents have occurred at the intersection in the past, but it isn't considered a dangerous location. He said accident reconstructionists were continuing an investigation.

All crossing equipment was in working order, he said. There are flashing lights at the crossing, but no arms that block traffic.

After the accident, contents from the car, including an unused diaper, a pair of white slip-on women's shoes and a cassette tape were strewn along the tracks.

The red Probe was flipped onto its roof in heavy brush, about 900 feet south of the crossing.

The passenger seat of the car was twisted and a blue and yellow child's cup lay inside. The two left tires were missing.

The family lived less than a mile from where the accident happened, in a mobile home community on Deer Trace Drive.

Neighbor Sheri Lusby, 32, who lives two doors down from the Nadlers' beige mobile home, said the family was tight-knit.

"They were very family oriented, like Leave it to Beaver," she said.

Patio furniture and a red sandbox sat outside the home Tuesday night. Neighbors of the busy community were talking near the home, trying to piece together the day's events.

Lusby said the Nadlers were often outside playing with their children, taking walks or talking to neighbors.

Faithe, who was in first grade at New Haven Elementary School, and Grace, who was in preschool, would show off their jump-rope tricks to passersby, Lusby said.

She said Faithe had long, brown hair and Grace had the "curliest blonde hair you ever wanted to see."

Lusby said Kevin, who was nicknamed "Bubby," was a "pistol."

"(Angela) was bragging about how he was going to preschool next year," she said.

Lusby said Angela Nadler worked at Gold Star Chili in nearby Richwood, but was not sure where Kevin Nadler worked.

She said Angela Nadler told her that she and her husband had recently bought the Probe.

"(Angela) was just very outgoing," Lusby said. "She loved her children to death. They were her world."

E-mail ssteitzer@enquirer.com