Crime & Safety

CHP: Big-Rig Was Stopped On Tracks When Train Hit It Near Fairfield

According to the California Highway Patrol the driver of the big-rig stopped his vehicle in the path of the train

By Bay City News Service

A big-rig was stopped on the railroad tracks when it was struck by a Coast Starlight Amtrak train at a crossing near Fairfield this morning, the California Highway Patrol said Monday afternoon.

Mark Eugene Manley, 51, of Galt, was driving a 2006 Peterbilt truck with a trailer on westbound Cannon Road east of Vanden Road around 8:30 a.m., CHP Officer Tony Blencowe said.

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Manley stopped his truck with the trailer blocking the tracks and did not realize the Amtrak train with 290 passengers was approaching until it was very close, Blencowe said.

The train operator, 34-year-old Jeremy Edson, of Oakland, sounded the horn before the crash, Blencowe said.

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Manley then put the truck in gear and tried to drive forward but the southbound train struck the trailer, Blencowe said.

Neither Manley nor the train operator were injured. None of the passengers were injured in the collision that closed two tracks and delayed Amtrak's Capitol Corridor trains between Auburn and
San Jose.

Amtrak spokeswoman Vernae Graham said one of the two tracks opened at 10:30 a.m. and the other opened an hour later. No delays were expected this evening, she said.

The crash damaged one of the Coast Starlight's two locomotives and the train continued on to Los Angeles with one locomotive, Graham said.


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