No injuries after dump truck, train collide; tracks still closed

MORRISVILLE -- A town spokesman said a section of railroad that was the site of a collision between a tractor-trailer dump truck and Amtrak train will be closed for the rest of the day because of extensive repairs.

“It’s going to be closed for another 10 hours,” Stacie Galloway, a Morrisville town spokeswoman said this afternoon. “They have to replace the signal and the crossing arms.”

Galloway said she did not know if the driver of the dump truck ran through the barricades. She said investigators at the scene have not yet disclosed a cause for the accident.

Motorists can still travel along N.C. 54, but cannot access McCrimmon Drive from N.C. 54.

No injuries were reported as a result of the collision, but the wreck displaced 33 passengers aboard the Piedment 75 that left Cary at 12:02 p.m. en route to Charlotte.

Galloway said 28 passengers opted to take a bus provided by Norfolk Southern Corporation officials for the rest of the trip to Charlotte, with stops along the way. The remaining five passengers chose to return to Cary.

Galloway said earlier today that the estimated time for the repairs to be completed and the track to be reopened would be about an hour.

Joining Morrisville firefighters and police in the accident investigation are workers with Amtrak's field operations department, Karina Romero, an Amtrak spokeswoman said this afternoon.

"Details of the tractor trailer's movement and placement at the time of the impact are still being investigated," Galloway stated in an afternoon press release.

The accident occurred just before 12:15 p.m. in a railroad crossing at the intersection of McCrimmon Parkway and N.C. 54, a 911 dispatcher reported.

The train sustained considerable damage to its front end as a result of the collision.

"The train will terminate where it is," Romero said. "The damage is too significant."

The dump truck driver narrowly avoided serious injury, and possibly death, when the cab of the vehicle he was driving separated from the bed when the passenger train collided with the vehicle at the railroad crossing.

"He was able to pull away upon impact," Galloway said. The train did not derail, she added.

The section of track where the wreck occurred is owned by the Norfolk Southern Corporation, Romero said.

The McCrimmon Parkway will be closed while the tracks are cleared of wreckage, Romero said.

Wake County Emergency Services also was dispatched to the scene, authorities reported.