Semi-truck and train crash in Arlington

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Semi-truck and train crash in Arlington

By Robert Wilson

A truck and a train collide in Arlington, leaving behind a huge mess. Soybeans spilled everywhere after the train hit a semi pulling two trailers.

Arlington is about 20 miles west of Brookings.

The crash made it tough to get around the area this morning. The truck was headed south with two trailers full of soybeans on Highway 81, the train was going east. Lights on the crossing were working properly, but the driver told the Kingsbury County Sheriff he didn't see the train until it was too late.

The force of the crash was enough to cut one of the two metal trailers in half and dump 1,700 bushels of soybeans. The train also drug the semi more than a hundred feet from the railroad crossing.

From inside the convenience store just a few feet from the crossing, Roxane Norgaard witnessed the crash and said it almost didn't look real. "It was kind of like a cartoon happening it went so fast."

The Kingsbury County Sheriff tells KSFY some witnesses told him the angle of the sun at 9:15 in the morning could have made it very difficult to see the lights on the railroad crossing. Sheriff Kevin Scotting says he's not sure yet if the truck driver will be cited or not.

The truck is owned by Junker Trucking in Castlewood and the driver has been with the company for three years without any tickets or accidents. Owner Lonnie Junker says equipment can be replaced. As for how the accident happened, "just that he was going to go across and all of a sudden the train showed up, there were cars on the siding there and he couldn't see the train coming."

D,M & E officials tell KSFY there equipment was damaged in the crash, but they're still not sure just how serious the damage is. They also tell me along with the lights on the crossing, the train was sounding it's horn as well.

By late Wednesday afternoon 500 bushels of the beans had been cleaned up. Lonnie Junker says he hoped they could save as many as 1,200 bushels.

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