Amtrak Train Injures Driver, Totals Truck at Dangerous, Unguarded Crossing
(Cade, Louisiana – October 18, 2011)
A 30-year-old Abbeville, LA man was injured, had his pickup truck totaled, and received a traffic ticket Tuesday about noon when he was struck by Amtrak’s eastbound “Sunset Limited” at the dangerous, unguarded crossing of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad tracks and Charles Drive in Cade, LA.
Jeb Bouillon was on his lunch break when he attempted to cross the BNSF tracks, only to freeze when he saw the passenger train bearing down upon him. The train’s locomotive struck his vehicle on the driver’s side, flipping it 30 feet from the point of impact.
The Charles Drive/BNSF crossing has no electronic protective devices, instead being equipped solely with passive railroad crossbuck signs. Regardless, the victim was cited for “failure to yield” to a train he neither saw nor heard until it was too late. He was transported to a local hospital for treatment of his injuries.
