The Free Press
LAKE CRYSTAL — No one was injured when a semi and a train crashed Wednesday afternoon near Lake Crystal.
Blue Earth County deputies were dispatched at 2:13 p.m. to 200th Street and Highway 60 near Lake Crystal to investigate a report of a crash involving a semi and a train.
Deputies said a Union Pacific train was traveling west with a mix of tanker cars and box cars. The tanker cars were believed to be carrying ethanol; none of the cars sustained any damage or leakage.
The semi was traveling west on Highway 60 carrying paper products and packing materials. When its driver, Jerry Lee Budeau, 59, Bismarck, North Dakota, attempted to turn the semi onto 200th Street, the truck’s trailer and the train crashed.
Budeau told deputies he had turned onto 200th Street, along with other vehicles, due to the road closure for Highway 60 construction at Lake Crystal.
A Blue Earth County Sheriff’s Office press release advises motorists to follow official construction detours. Unofficial routes are not designed to handle large volumes of traffic and may lack safety measures considered in the official detour.
The incident was the second area crash involving a train this month.
The Brown County Sheriff’s Office ticketed a New Richland man for a misdemeanor railroad crossing violation and for disobeying a traffic control device, a petty misdemeanor, for a collision between a semi and a train in Sleepy Eye April 4.