Must have been a wild ride

This morning a Union Pacific (UP) maintenance truck left the tracks west of Cary and tumbled down an embankment toward U.S. 14. From the looks of the scrape marks on the embankment and the damage to the driver's-side door (visible after the truck was rolled onto its wheels), the truck left the tracks as it headed toward Cary from the Crystal Lake area, nosed over on its left side and top, missed a couple of good-sized trees, and came to rest on its roof.

Police and rescue personnel had already departed, and only Whitey's Tow Service and several UP trucks were there. The only words from a UP foreman were, "It must have been a wild ride." He was about to head to the hospital to check on the driver.

After the driver of the Whitey's tow truck in the picture righted the pick-up truck by rolling it onto its wheels, it was to be loaded onto a rollback tow truck to be hauled from the scene. The location was about 100 yards west of the intersection of U.S. 14 and Cary-Algonquin Road. The UP truck did not roll onto the State highway. To enlarge the image, click on the picture; then click on the Back button on your browser to come back here.

If UP maintenance truck drivers haven't been wearing their seatbelts, I imagine they will after today's accident.