Train Strikes Car Stuck On Tracks In Pillager

A woman narrowly escaped tragedy this morning as her car became stuck on the train tracks in Pillager just as a train was approaching.

According to Pillager Police Chief Youngblom, at around 11:40 a.m. Tuesday the police department received a call of a car that was hit by a train at a crossing on the west side of Pillager.

“We got called to a car that was on the tracks just on the west side of town here at the west crossing. When I arrived, the train was already stopped. The train was about a half a mile down from the crossing. There was a car that was kind of pushed up underneath one of the rail cars and everybody in the vehicle was out,” said Tom Youngblom, Pillager Police Chief.

According the the Pillager Police Department, a woman was driving her car toward the tracks when she hit a slippery patch of road and slid into the ditch with the rear of her car stuck on the tracks. Authorities then tried to mobilize help before the train approached but were unsuccessful, forcing the woman to evacuate her vehicle.

“The railroad crossing has kind of an “S” corner and she was traveling west, and when she went to turn to make part of the “S” turn the road conditions were slippery and the car went straight off the road up over onto the tracks, and then she was stuck,” explained Chief Youngblom.

No one was injured in the incident. The Pillager Police Department was assisted by the Cass County Sheriff’s Office at the scene.