Tahlequah Man Escapes Injury In Truck-Train Accident

Associated Press

NEWKIRK, Okla. (AP) -- A tractor-trailer driver escaped injury when he got out his rig shortly before it was hit by a train in Kay County.

No one was hurt in the accident Monday morning about three miles north of Newkirk, Oklahoma The lumber truck was destroyed in the collision.

The Oklahoma Highway Patrol said 41-year-old Ronald Sinclair, of Tahlequah, Oklahoma, got out of the flatbed trailer after it got high-centered on the tracks. He was trying to put lumber under the trailer's tires when he heard the train whistle.

A spokesman for Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad said the 112-car train was going about 53 mph just before the collision.

The truck driver worked for a construction company out of Fort Gibson, Oklahoma.