Domonick Williams grew worried when his parents were late dropping off his 22-month-old son. When he saw a TV news report Saturday evening about a deadly crash between a vehicle and a light-rail train, it didn't even cross his mind that his family could be involved.

"I didn't put two and two together," Williams, 26, said Sunday. "Until they called me saying it was my dad. My mom. My son. My sister. I don't know what I'm supposed to do."

Williams said his father Leon Williams Sr., 62, toddler son Damian Antiwon Williams and sister Shantel Hope Williams, 25, were killed in Saturday's collision. His mother, Demetric Deann Good Williams, 57, is in intensive care at a Sacramento hospital, he said.

The Sacramento County Coroner's Office on Sunday identified young Damian, but not the other passengers in the Nissan Pathfinder.

Domonick Williams said his father was driving at the time of the 4:10 p.m. crash Saturday at the Meadowview train's 26th Avenue crossing.

As Williams tried to put together the pieces of what happened, investigators looked at video and other evidence from the crash site and confirmed initial reports – that the driver of the SUV drove around a 26th Avenue crossing arm just before the vehicle was hit broadside by the Sacramento Regional Transit train,police said Sunday.

Williams said he is having a hard time with those accounts.

"I don't think he was as reckless that he would go around the poles," Williams said. "My father is a safe driver. He loves his grandkids. I know he wasn't trying to hurt himself or anyone else."

About 50 passengers were on the train when the crash occurred. Seventeen were examined by emergency medical personnel at the scene, and six – three adults and three juveniles – were taken to an area hospital with injuries, police said.

The RT train was southbound on the Meadowview line when it hit the SUV on 26th Avenue and pushed it 20 yards to the south. The train stayed on the tracks, but the SUV flipped upside down, Sgt. Andrew Pettit, Sacramento police spokesman, said.

It was the third train to cross at the site while the crossing arms remain lowered.

An RT spokeswoman Sunday explained that the first two trains to cross at the site were Union Pacific. The third was the RT train. There are four tracks at that grade crossing, spokeswoman Alane Masui said.

The crossing arms were down and warning lights were blinking when the driver of the Nissan steered around another car and then around the crossing arms, according to RT General Manager Mike Wiley.

"The train ran directly into the side of the SUV," said Wiley on Saturday. "The train operator applied the emergency brake just before impact."

"There are sound walls on their side of the tracks, so visibility is limited, and the train was traveling 50 to 55 miles per hour."

RT officials have said it was possibly the worst light-rail accident in the system's 25-year history.

Residents of neighboring homes rushed outside to help after hearing what sounded like an explosion.

"I came out with my dad," Cecilia Sanchez, 40, said Sunday. "The car was flipped over. All the passengers from the train were getting out. There were people trapped in the car."

One neighbor ran into her home to get a blanket to wrap around the baby, she said.

Sanchez pointed to a center strip, a few inches in height, dividing the eastbound and westbound traffic lanes, an apparent effort to stop motorists from circumventing the crossing arms.

Williams said his father had worked as a construction worker and carpenter. His mother had worked for a cleaning company.

Over the years, the family lived throughout the Sacramento area, but primarily in Rancho Cordova.

Williams said he will miss his son's smile and how the toddler loved his independence. Williams said he saw his son on weekends, and that he is trying to comfort the boy's mother, Rosa Rubio.

Efforts to reach Rubio on Sunday were unsuccessful.

"I keep thinking it's a bad dream," Williams said. "I refuse to acknowledge I have to bury my baby. It's still a shock to me. I'm dreading going to the Coroner's Office and seeing my son on the table."

On Sunday afternoon, a small teddy bear rested at the site, a few feet from the shards of glass that were remnants of Saturday's crash.

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Call The Bee's Melody Gutierrez, (916) 326-5521. Follow her on Twitter @MelodyGutierrez.