Truck accident forces shutdown of road, rail line traffic

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A Dakota Southern Railway official said Thursday that a freak trucking accident at the Davison-Aurora county line will close 394th Avenue and shut down east-west traffic on the rail line for an undetermined period of time.

Davison County Chief Deputy Steve Brink said that around 10:30 a.m. Thursday, a semi pulling a low-boy trailer hooked the track as it went over the crossing at 394th Avenue between Old Highway 16 and 253rd Street.

The truck, owned by Veurink Trucking, of Mitchell, was hauling a front-end loader on the lowboy when it hooked the track. The driver, Neal Hoffman, of Letcher, was not ticketed. The trucking rig did not appear to have much damage, Brink said.

“But it did significant damage to the crossing. I didn’t know rail could bend that far,” said Brink, who estimated the accident pulled the heavy gauge rail about 1 foot out of line. “Each side is blaming the other, but for now both the railroad and road are closed.”

Dakota Southern Railway Roadmaster Lester Thompson, speaking from his Chamberlain office, said, “The whole rail has been pulled up. It did a lot of damage.”

Thompson, giving a ballpark estimate, said damages could range between $25,000 and $40,000. He said about five to six sections of welded rail and some ties will have to be replaced.

He had no estimate on how long that will take.

“We’ll have it open as soon as feasibly possible,” he said.

Tags: car accident, news, updates, truck, railroad, local