OWATONNA, Min. – A Canadian Pacific freight train that originated in Winona smashed into a truck and semitrailer at a U.S. Highway14 crossing three miles east of Owatonna. No one was hurt. The impact broke the truck from its trailer as the locomotives sliced into the rig. The truck and the trailer ended up on opposite sides pf the track. The truck driver, Hernan Francisco Orteg Rodrigues, 29, of Granada. apparently crossed into the train’s path at a narrow-angle blind crossing. Whether crossing lights were blinking red wasn’t immediately ascertained. The crossing has no gate barriers. The trailer behind the 2012 Freightliner truck was loaded with heavy rock. The train had two crew members — Andres Moreno, 55, and Dustin Dennis Stoks, 43, both of Des Moines. The crash occurred about 8:15 a.m. The highway was expected to be closed six hours.
Canadian Pacific crossing. The train was hauling empty ethanol tankers that are regularly ferried to and from biofuel plants across southern Minnesota. Image: Minnesota State Patrol