Morrill Co. Man Injured in Train vs. Road Grader Collision

A Morrill County Roads Department employee suffered critical injuries when a train collided with the road grader he was driving northwest of Bridgeport Saturday morning.

Deputies from the Morrill County Sheriff’s Office, Bridgeport Fire and ALS were called to a railroad crossing just south of the intersection of county roads 89 and 102, where the grader had been clearing snow from a minimum maintenance road and was struck by a BNSF train shortly after 9:30 a.m.

Morrill County Sheriff Milo Cardenas tells KNEB News the driver of the grader was taken to Morrill County Community Hospital, and then transferred to the ICU at Regional West in Scottsbluff, where he’s reported in critical condition.

Cardenas says the cause and events leading up to the collision are being investigated by his office with the cooperation of BNSF, and he’s awaiting video from the incident recorded by equipment installed in the lead locomotive. He says response to the scene was hampered somewhat by the location of the collision, heavy snowfall and slick road conditions.

BNSF officials told KNEB News the two members of the train crew were uninjured.