(The St. Cloud Times posted the following story by Kelly Scott on its website on October 15.)
SAUK RAPIDS, Minn. — A woman was taken to the hospital Tuesday afternoon after her vehicle collided with a train.
The woman, whose name wasn’t released, was taken to St. Cloud Hospital. Her condition was unknown. Officers were trying to confirm the woman’s identity. They found few identifying documents in the vehicle or on the woman, Sauk Rapids police said.
The collision happened about 1 p.m. Tuesday. Police said the woman drove her vehicle around the railroad crossing’s stop arm and stopped her vehicle in the train’s path. The collision happened at the track’s intersection with 10th Street North in Sauk Rapids. The vehicle was traveling east, police said.
After being hit, the vehicle came to rest against the crossing gates on the east side of the intersection. The train continued about an eighth of a mile before it stopped.
The empty coal train was on its way to Wyoming, said Steve Forsberg, a Burlington Northern Santa Fe spokesman.
The train was traveling at 53 mph, Forsberg said. The crossing’s gates and lights were working, he said.
“The train crew simply doesn’t have the ability to stop like that,” Forsberg said. “The laws of physics won’t let it.”
As of last week, 28 crashes had been reported this year at Minnesota rail crossings, according to the Department of Transportation. Eight people died in those crashes. Last year, 72 crashes at rail crossings were reported, MnDOT said. In those, nine people died.