Train collides with truck on tracks

SAGLE — A Montana man managed to avoid injury after a passenger train struck the pickup truck he was driving on railroad tracks early Tuesday morning.

Idaho State Police said Lynn Schedlbauer accessed a private at-grade railroad crossing on the east side of U.S. Highway 95 and attempted to use a side road running along the tracks, but encountered 3 1/2 feet of water and drove onto the tracks headed northbound.

Along came a northbound Amtrak train, which rear-ended Schedlbauer’s 1999 Ford F-350. The heavy-duty pickup was thrown from the tracks and into the flooded access road, state police said.

Schedlbauer, a 40-year-old from Libby, was wearing a seat belt and emerged from the collision uninjured, according to ISP. He was ticketed for trespassing.

State police did not indicate if any passengers or train staff were injured.

The collision was reported at 3:43 a.m. The crash occurred at the Davisville Road turnoff, according to Bonner Dispatch records.