Bellingham man killed in fiery crash with train in northeastern Montana

A 69-year-old Bellingham man died Nov. 21 in Montana when a truck he was a passenger in got stuck on railroad tracks in Roosevelt County and was struck by a freight train.

The identities of the Bellingham man and the 40-year-old male Montana driver, who also died at the scene, have not yet been released by the Roosevelt County Sheriff’s Office.

The crash occurred on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, about six miles east of Wolf Point and a half mile west of Montana Highway 13, Trooper Mitch Willett of the Montana Highway Patrol told The Bellingham Herald Wednesday.

According to Willett, the two men were in a 1986 Chevrolet pickup that was traveling through a field, when they turned right, went through a fence, up a railroad embankment and became high-centered on the tracks.

Despite foggy conditions, an eastbound Burlington Northern-Santa Fe train saw the truck on the tracks and applied its emergency brakes, Willett said, but it could not stop in time. The collision caused the truck to rotate and roll once down the embankment, before it landed on its wheels and caught on fire.

Willett said the incident is still under investigation, but alcohol use is suspected. There were no injuries to anyone aboard the train.