Warning: Do Not Drive Around Cars Waiting at a Grade Crossing for the Train to Go By

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Last edited Tue Jun 2, 2015, 12:56 PM - Edit history (1)

Hat tip, Trainorders: Man Killed in Crash With Amtrak

Police ID man killed in Amtrak collision

Tina MacIntyre-Yee, Public safety reporter 5:34 p.m. EDT June 1, 2015

A town of Chili employee died after being thrown from his car when it was struck by an Amtrak passenger train early Monday.

Brandon M. Sauer, 20, of North Chili was heading east on King Road in Chili, passed the vehicle in front of him and went around the crossing gates, said Capt. David Inzana, Monroe County Sheriff's Office. The crossing gates were working with the arms down and cautionary lights activated, deputies said.

The train hit the back side of the car, spun it around, and the car did at least one somersault, Sgt. Robert Murphy said. The crash took out the back seats of the car and a part of the undercarriage as well as one of the gates and crossing signal, he said.

Sauer was known by several Chili firefighters, deputies said. ... "Unfortunately this is a tragedy that shouldn't have occurred. You have to respect the crossing gates," Inzana said.

Man killed in vehicle-train accident south of Moorhead

By Josh Francis on May 30, 2015 at 1:53 p.m.

KURTZ TOWNSHIP, MINN. -- A car collided with a BNSF Railway train Saturday morning and burst into flames, killing the occupant inside.

Clay County Sheriff Bill Bergquist said the car hit the train just before 9 a.m. at a crossing south of Moorhead. The car was dragged about one-third of a mile down the track before it could come to a stop.

Bergquist said the crossing arms at the stop were down and there appeared to be damage to one of the arms.

He said there were two witnesses to the crash and he's hoping their accounts will determine how the car ended up in front of the train.