(The following article by Kara Lopp was posted on the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette website on January 11.)
WATERLOO, Ind. — A load of soybeans was spilled Wednesday morning when an Amtrak passenger train crashed into the back of a tractor-trailer rig sitting on the tracks.
Truck driver Ronald Bidlack, 47, of Van Wert, Ohio, had just filled the trailer with soybeans from the Waterloo Farm Center when the accident occurred near DeKalb County Road 47 and U.S. 6.
There were no injuries reported.
The trailer was registered to Simon Farms of Rockford, Ohio.
According to Indiana State Police Senior Trooper Jason House, Bidlack had been waiting at the railroad crossing behind several other vehicles about 7:45 a.m. when he drove over the tracks planning to turn onto U.S. 6.
Bidlack was waiting for the traffic ahead of him to clear – not realizing that the back of his trailer was still on the tracks – when the vehicle was struck by the westbound Amtrak train.
Bidlack said he didn’t see the train approaching, House said.
The back of the trailer was split open, spilling the soybeans onto County Road 47 and the railroad tracks.
The passenger train was sent a few miles away to the Amtrak station in Waterloo where the 130 passengers and eight crew members were unloaded to change cars, a police report said.
The tan, round soybeans were still covering parts of the area Wednesday afternoon as workers cleaned up from the accident and the tractor-trailer awaited a tow.
Another tractor-trailer rig was brought in to carry away the salvageable beans, state police spokesman Sgt. Rodger Popplewell said.
The road was closed until about 12:30 p.m., he said.