KALAMA, Wash. — A man, woman and 19-month-old child were unhurt after two passenger trains clipped the pickup truck they were in as it drove for miles along a gravel path between the railroad tracks, Cowlitz County sheriff’s deputies say.
According to a wire service, the pickup’s driver, Bennie E. Flatau, 77, of St. Helens, Ore., told deputies he didn’t know how he wound up between the tracks Tuesday night, and that he had driven eight miles south from the Longview Wye rail yard in Kelso trying to find a way off.
Flatau, Marites G. Beckel, 28, also of St. Helens, and her daughter, Christina, were in the truck when it was nicked at 6:42 p.m. by Amtrak’s Coast Starlight train, traveling north from Los Angeles. The truck then was just north of the Longview Wye.
Sheriff’s Sgt. Levi Morgan said the train’s engineers called Burlington Northern Santa Fe to say they had hit a truck on the tracks. The train backed up, but the vehicle was gone. The train then resumed its trip to Seattle.
The truck continued south between the tracks, and eventually got stuck in Kalama. Flatau and his two passengers got out of the truck and, at 7:19 p.m., a second train, the Portland-to-Seattle Amtrak, hit the truck, shearing off the driver’s side.
“They were trying to find a way off when two trains came along northbound,” said sheriff’s Lt. Charlie Rosenzweig. He said the truck was totaled.
Deputies said it was not clear why Flatau was at the rail yard, but he apparently became disoriented. They said he told them he realized he should have gotten off the tracks right away.
Rozenweig said it was dark when the truck drove onto the tracks, and that neither Flatau nor Beckel were familiar with the area.