Six die in train collision

? A freight train collided with a sport utility vehicle near the Kansas state line Thursday, killing six migrant workers in the SUV, police said.

Another person in the SUV suffered serious injuries in the collision at a spot where tracks cross a county road that cuts through farm fields outside Granada, the Colorado State Patrol said. The person’s condition was not immediately available.

No one aboard the BNSF Railway train was hurt, authorities said.

The victims were all from south Texas and had been in the area at least a week looking for work, the State Patrol and two farmers said. Some had worked at farms transplanting onions, which involves stooping and placing young onion seedlings into the ground.

“I don’t think they liked the work and wanted to move on,” said Bill Grasmick, co-owner of Grasmick Inc., where some of the victims had worked Wednesday and where they spent the night before heading out Thursday.

Five victims died at the scene, and the sixth died after being flown to a Denver hospital, the patrol said. BNSF spokeswoman Lena Kent said the crossing where the crash occurred is marked by signs but no lights or gates.

The Colorado State Patrol identified the dead as: Melissa Resendez, 23, of Combes, Texas; Ventura Becerra, 26, of Harlingen, Texas; Francisco Perez Jr., 36, of Donna, Texas; Cristela Rios, 36, of Donna, Texas, and her children Bud Cruz, 13, and Harley Rios, 14. Prowers County Coroner Joe Giadone said they died of massive trauma.

Granada, a town of 640 people, is about 170 miles southeast of Denver.