NYC-bound Amtrak train collides with truck, 1 dead

A truck driver was killed Wednesday after apparently driving his rig around railroad crossing gates into the path of an Amtrak passenger train, police said.

None of the 236 passengers or 16 crew members aboard the Chicago-to-New York City train were hurt in the morning collision at the crossing in Dunkirk, about 40 miles west of Buffalo, Amtrak spokesman Cliff Cole said.

The train — the Lake Shore Limited — was delayed for about five hours while debris was cleared from under the main engine, which was damaged. The trip resumed at 1:18 p.m., Cole said.

Police identified the truck driver as Randolph Todd, 51, of Sheppard, Texas. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The truck, owned by Lew Thompson & Son of Huntsville, Ark., was headed to a Nestle Purina facility a couple of hundred yards from where the collision occurred, police said.

“It felt like we hit something, but no one knew whether it was locking of the brakes,” passenger Peter Fiannaca of Oneonta said in a cell phone call to The Buffalo News.

He said he saw the wreckage of the tractor-trailer after walking to the back of the train and looking out a window.

“It was cut like butter,” he said. “Half is on one side; half is on the other.”