(The following story by Matt Erickson and Renee Richardson appeared on the Brainerd Dispatch website on July 14.)
BAXTER, Minn. — One man was injured after the dump truck he was driving collided with a Burlington Northern Santa Fe train at Hardy Lake Road and Highway 210, west of Baxter.
The accident happened about 4:35 p.m. and blocked traffic on Highway 210 for at least a mile in both directions.
The driver of a northbound Anderson Brothers dump truck collided head-on with the westbound train, said Cass County Sheriff’s Sgt. Scott Thompson. It appeared the driver didn’t stop for the stop sign at the intersection with the railroad tracks, Thompson said. He said drugs or alcohol weren’t a factor in the accident.
The name of the Anderson Brothers driver wasn’t available from the Cass County Sheriff’s Department Monday night. Thompson said the driver suffered possible serious injuries in the accident. No one else was reported injured.
At the scene, an Anderson Brothers dump truck was sitting just off the railroad tracks and train cars had been separated to allow for emergency personnel to reach the site. The force of the collision left the cab of the dump truck mangled and sitting at a 90-degree angle to the truck frame. The hood of the truck, which was ripped off in the collision, sat about 15 feet from the rest of the dump truck.
At the scene, Crow Wing County Sheriff’s Sgt. Todd Dahl, who was assisting Cass County sheriff’s deputies, said the man in the dump truck was alert and talking as paramedics from North Ambulance checked out his injuries.
Neighbors heard a loud “thunk” and then the screech of metal as the train tried to stop. Then they gathered along the service drive and along Highway 210 watching the rescue personnel. The Anderson Brothers truck rested on the side of the road, its front end smashed sideways even as the empty dump bed behind it remained upright.
“I heard a noise,” area resident Alex Millner said. “I thought it was thunder.”
But Millner looked out at a blue sky and then a neighbor told him about the crash. Millner, who has lived in the area since 1981, said the crossing can be a dangerous one. There is no cross arm at the intersection, just stop signs.
“When you come from the south, visibility is very bad,” Millner said. “It’s hard to see. There’s been several accidents here. … Religiously I always stop. You have to come close to the tracks to look west.”
When he got to the train crossing just down from his residence, he saw the Anderson truck driver was someone he knew. Millner said it was a man he’s gone hunting with for a couple of years. He said his friend was conscious at the scene.
Millner said if anyone could withstand such a collision, it would be his hunting friend.
“He’s a little guy, but he’s tough.”
Several members of the dump truck driver’s family also were at the scene, picking up his personal belongings from the weeds near the railroad tracks and from the cab of the dump truck.
Assisting at the scene were the State Patrol, Baxter Police Department, and the Pillager and Brainerd fire departments. North Air Care landed its helicopter in the ditch between Highway 210 and the railroad tracks, but left when it was learned the victim wouldn’t need to be air lifted to a hospital. Two large, flat-bed tow trucks from Peterson Towing arrived at the accident scene to remove the damaged dump truck.
Highway 210 traffic was slowed because of the accident for about 45 minutes. For a brief time, traffic was detoured around the accident scene.
No train cars derailed as a result of the collision.