News

Train strikes tractor, leaves farmer dead

By Larry Ault/of the Commercial Staff
Friday, March 9, 2007 10:20 PM CST

VARNER — A farmer whose John Deere tractor was caught on railroad tracks a mile and one-half south of Varner was struck by a northbound Union Pacific freight train and killed about 2:40 p.m. Friday.

Lincoln County Coroner Jimmy Hawkins pronounced the man dead at the scene but declined to release his name until next of kin are notified. He was believed to be a Lincoln County farmer.

“I saw the train coming and the tractor sitting on the tracks,” said David Davis of Star City, who witnessed the collision as he was driving on U.S. 65, which runs parallel to the railroad track. “I heard what sounded like an explosion and I saw the wheels come flying off the tractor. Then I called 911.”

It appeared that the farmer, who was reportedly working for Clinton Gasaway Farms of Gould, was hauling a land plane and heading east through a rail crossing.

At the scene parts of the tractor were scattered over a wide area of the east side of the tracks, while the bright yellow plane was on the west side.

“The man on the tractor died,” said Joe Arbona, a spokesman for the southern region of Union Pacific Railroad. “The crew is pretty shook up.”

Arbona said the victim was “at an angle facing the northbound train,” which was headed towards Pine Bluff.

Investigators were on the scene Friday afternoon, he said.

“We’’re still trying to find [his] next of kin,” Arbona said later Friday, explaining that the train was traveling between 40 to 50 miles an hour, under the speed limit of 60. Arbona said the victim was “a person in his 30s.”

“The crossing had stop signs,” Arbona said, explaining that the “crew went into emergency mode but it couldn’t stop in time.” The investigation is continuing.

Arkansas State Police troopers were working the scene Friday afternoon along with the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Department and the Grady Fire Department.

Arbona said the Lincoln County train wreck was one of two that occurred in Arkansas Friday. Two people died earlier Friday in Greene County when their truck collided with an oncoming Union Pacific train, the Arkansas State Police reported.

George W. Dickerson, 73, and Alvin White, 65, both of Paragould, died in the collision in on U.S. 49 between Paragould and Marmaduke. The State Police reported Dickerson drove his 1984 Chevrolet truck onto the railroad tracks when a train was approaching. The train struck the right side of the truck and both Dickerson and White, who was a passenger, were pronounced dead at the scene.

Lincoln County correspondent John Whipple contributed to this article.

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