November 9, 2001

PRESS RELEASE

To: Newsroom

For Immediate Release

Contact: Brian A. Crawford, Public Information Officer

Phone: 673-6652, cell: 455-2609, page: 675-2137

Train Strikes Truck Sends Two to Hospital

A Union Pacific work train headed to Lufkin, Texas, struck a dump truck this afternoon as it crossed the tracks at Buncombe Road and Flournoy Lucas Road in west Shreveport.

Fire communications officers at Caddo Parish 911 received the first call reporting the incident at 1:23 p.m. When emergency crews arrived, they found the detached mangled bed of the dump truck twisted and laying on the side of the tracks just off of Buncombe. The tractor/cab portion of the truck, that appears to have made it through without sustaining a direct hit from the train engine, was resting twisted and badly banged up some 75 feet away facing the opposite direction on Flournoy Lucas.

Two people, Mack Taylor, 60, driving the truck for Plain Dealing Trucking and the train’s conductor Glenn Perry, both received minor injuries and were transported to Willis Knighton Bossier and Willis Knighton Main respectively. Reports at the scene stated that the crossing lights may have not been operating at the time of the accident. However, Union Pacific officials at the scene told fire officials that not only were the lights working but they had been inspected hours earlier that day, at 12:15 p.m., in a routine check.

Damage to the train engine, that sat motionless on the tracks 300 feet south of the accident scene, had not been evaluated at the time of this release but the damage to the track crossing at Buncombe was apparent. ###