Coroner identifies victims of fatal South Mississippi train-van collision
Stone County Coroner Wayne Flurry has identified the victims of Friday’s deadly train-van crash in Wiggins.
Five people were killed and one seriously injured around 1 p.m. when a 2016 Chrysler Town & Country, traveling westbound toward U.S. 49 on Pump Branch Road in Wiggins, van was struck by a freight train on the Canadian Pacific Kansas City railway.
All five victims are from the Coast. Killed in the crash were:
- Driver Ryan C. Peterson, 26, a corrections officer with the Harrison County Sheriff’s Department
- Kristina Carver, 45
- Emley Chamblee, 22, Carver’s daughter
- Sarabeth Chamblee, 20, Carver’s daughter
- Demarcus Perkins, 23
Another one of Carver’s daughters was in the van. Ariel Chamblee, 23, was the only survivor and was flown from the scene to a hospital in New Orleans.
Nobody on the train was injured. There is no railroad crossing gate on the tracks where the collision happened.
“This is about seven or eight train wrecks here in the last five years,” said Ella Hall, who lives close to the site of the crash. “So when you hear the noise, you know what it is.”
This story was originally published March 27, 2026 at 6:22 PM.