ONE INJURED IN DERAILEMENT OF TRAIN IN S. CAPE GIRARDEAU

A train engineer was slightly injured and a load of soybeans destroyed Friday after a B&J Trucking truck was hit by a Burlington-Northern train.

The train was traveling north about 9:15 a.m. just past the Lonestar plant when the tractor-trailer ran a stop sign at the intersection of the tracks and La Cruz Street, said the Burlington-Northern engineer involved in the accident.

The train struck the rear part of truck driver Jim Lloyd's trailer, knocking it off the road and derailing the train.

"At a certain point, I knew the truck wasn't going to make it," engineer W.E. Sullivan of Cape Girardeau said. "I just knew we were going to turn over."

The train came off the tracks but didn't fall over. Sullivan said he and fellow engineer Dave Pepple of Chaffee hit the floor when they knew the accident was inevitable.

Sullivan came away uninjured, but Pepple complained of knee and hip pain and was treated at St. Francis Medical Center and released.

"If we were going to turn over, we wanted to be low to the ground and holding onto something," Sullivan said. "And we didn't want that truck coming through the window."

The truck driver wasn't hurt. The East Prairie man said he was "shook up" and declined to comment about the accident. He was driving to Consolidated Grain and Barge when the accident occurred.

Burlington-Northern employees worked for hours clearing several yards of soybeans off the track and straightening the rails.