See Video of Lighter-Fluid Truck Bursting Into Flames After Train Crash
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Purestock/Thinkstock(SOMERSET, Ky.) — A truck driver was in stable condition Tuesday morning recovering from an accident on a Kentucky highway in which a train smashed into his tractor-trailer, officials said.
The driver’s truck, loaded with charcoal lighter fluid, burst into flames as the train hit it.
The truck was headed into Warner Fertilizer in Somerset, Kentucky, Friday when it was hit by a southbound train, investigators say. The truck split on impact, leaving the cab on one side of the track and the trailer on the other.
The driver didn’t notice the approaching train as he made a turn, focusing on the rear of his truck to ensure that it wouldn’t run off the road, the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.
Officials said a UPS train trailer loaded with black powder was just a few cars from the fire on the train, but the fire never made it that far.
“It would be a completely different situation [if fire reached black power],” Doug Baker, chief of Somerset-Pulaski Special Response, told ABC News Tuesday. “Luckily, that didn’t happen, thanks to the quick actions of the local fire department.”
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