Driver treated, released following truck-train wreck

Monday, July 11, 2005
Volunteers man scoop shovels to clean up grain spilled in a train-truck collision Saturday in McCook. The driver was taken to Community Hospital of McCook where he was treated for bruises and lacerations and released. (Bruce Crosby/McCook Daily Gazette)

CULBERTSON -- A McCook man was treated for bruises and lacerations after the truck he was driving struck the side of a westbound freight train in Culbertson early Saturday afternoon.

Culbertson's ambulance crew transported Roger W. Bauer, 43, to Community Hospital of McCook where he was treated and released, according to Hitchcock County Sheriff D. Bryan Leggott.

Leggott said the accident happened at 1:37 p.m., at the Highway 17 crossing south of Culbertson, when Bauer drove his 1980 farm truck through the railroad crossing warning arms and collided with the side of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe freight train.

Leggott said the truck, owned by Ronald J. Hoyt of Culbertson, was totaled. The crossing arms and ladders on the freight train car were damaged.

Leggott said the highway was closed during the investigation.

The Culbertson marshal and personnel from the Nebraska State Patrol and the Culbertson Volunteer Fire Department provided traffic control and assistance, Leggott said.

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