A freight train slammed into a pickup truck crossing the tracks Tuesday morning in southern Minnesota, seriously injuring the driver, authorities said.
The collision occurred about 9:55 a.m. roughly 12 miles southeast of Albert Lea, where 120th Street crosses the tracks as they run parallel to Hwy. 65, the Freeborn County Sheriff's Office said.
The pickup driver, 72-year-old Gary Walstrom, of nearby Hayward, was taken by air ambulance to St. Mary's Hospital in Rochester after emergency responders removed him from the mangled wreckage. Walstrom's condition was not immediately known.
The Union Pacific train's engineer said he was traveling north at about 35 to 40 miles per hour, and sounded the whistle and horn while seeing the pickup slow down to the point of thinking the driver was going to stop at the yield sign, the Sheriff's Office said.
However, truck continued, and the train struck the passenger side of the vehicle.
