NISHINOMIYA, Hyogo Prefecture--Ignoring an order by police to pull over, three people were killed when their car entered a railway crossing in Amagasaki and was struck by a Hankyu railway train early Monday, police said.

The gates were down when the car, containing a man, woman and child, entered the crossing chased by a patrol car, police said.

The eight-car express train, on the way from Umeda Station in Osaka to Sannomiya Station in Kobe, bulldozed the car about 200 meters down the tracks until it derailed and came to a stop.

None of the 200 train passengers was hurt in the accident, which occurred shortly after midnight, the sources said.

Service between Sonoda and Nishinomiya-Kitaguchi stations was disrupted for nearly seven hours, until about 7 a.m. Forty-two train runs were canceled, affecting 13,000 passengers.

The victims were identified as Amagasaki construction worker Masao Chinen, 37, his third eldest son, Kazuna, 11, and Terumi Higashimoto, 30, a neighbor.

They had just left an izakaya Japanese restaurant near Hankyu Mukonoso Station and set off in their car when they were ordered by police officers to stop.

Neither Chinen nor Higashimoto were licensed to drive.(IHT/Asahi: January 11,2005)