The driver of the truck, 60-year-old Perry Robert Erickson of Wallace, was not injured when the train engine struck the trailer. The collision detached the trailer from the 2016 Western Star log truck.
The engineer and conductor of the train were not injured, but the General Electric train engine was damaged in the crash.
Erickson was cited for failing to stop for an oncoming train. It was determined the truck and trailer also had legal reduced load per weight restrictions.
Sheriff Marks also reported there have been far too many train/vehicle crashes in Menominee County over the past several years, many of which have lead to tragic loss of life.
The sheriff encourages everyone to follow these safety tips:
1. Always expect a train at every railroad intersection. Look-look-look and listen. Double check. Stay alert, stay alive!
2. By the time a locomotive engineer sees a vehicle on the tracks, it's too late. It takes an average freight train more than a mile--the length of 18 football fields--to stop. Trains cannot stop quickly enough to avoid collision.
3. The average locomotive weighs about 400,000 pounds, or 200 tons; and it can weigh up to 6,000 tons. This makes the weight ratio of a car to a train proportional to that of a soda pop can and a car. Please do not drive in front of a train.
4. Trains have the right of way 100 percent of the time over emergency vehicles, cars, the police and pedestrians.
5. Any approaching train is closer, moving faster, than you think.
6. Remember to cross train tracks only at designated pedestrian or roadway crossings. Obey all warning signs and signals posted there.
7. Stay alert and stay alive around railroad tracks.
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