A freight train collided into a truck that was in the rail crossing in Prospect on Monday afternoon.
The collision threw the truck into an adjacent ditch on Muskrat Farm Road, near Route 1A, around 1 p.m., Prospect Fire Chief David Terry said. The truck driver sustained injuries, including a head laceration, and was brought to Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor.
The truck leaked 5-10 gallons of diesel fuel and an unspecified amount of hydraulic fluid, he said.
The Maine Department of Environmental Protection responded to the scene to pump the fuel from the truck and will send Clean Harbors to clean up whatever spilled.
“We cleaned up the spill with the best we can,” Terry said.
The scene was cleared by 6 p.m.
The collision did not cause a derailment, and the train, owned by CPKC, did not leak any hazardous materials, Terry said.
It is unclear why the truck was on the rails and whether it was sitting on the tracks or moving across them.
“There’s no way of knowing that. The only one that can answer that is the truck driver,” Terry said.
It is also unclear whether the rails were damaged, what cargo the train was carrying and if it was able to resume operations.
Maine State Police are investigating the collision and did not respond to questions Monday evening.
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