Pickup slides into UP train

MOYIE SPRINGS — The driver of a pickup is believed to have been drinking alcohol when he drove through a stop sign and into the path of train 11:40 a.m. Wednesday on Meadow Creek Road, police said.

Idaho State Police Senior Trooper Dustin Kralik told the Hagadone News Network that driver Shaun Jacob Sauget, 29, of Bonners Ferry admitted to drinking alcohol before he was taken to the hospital.

Both Sauget and passenger Michael James Harris II, 22, of Eastport were taken to Boundary Community Hospital in Bonners Ferry, where they were treated and released.

Sauget was northbound on Meadow Creek Road approaching the Union Pacific Railroad crossing when he failed to stop at the stop sign, according to an ISP press release. Sauget braked at the last minute, sliding onto the railroad tracks, where a southbound UP train struck the driver’s side of Sauget’s 1979 Chevy pickup.

“From what I was told, he failed to stop and hit the engine,” Kralik said.

The train pushed the pickup about 30 feet.

Sauget was cited on a charge of driving under the influence.