See Video of Lighter-Fluid Truck Bursting Into Flames After Train Crash
The truck driver was seriously injured and airlifted to a hospital.
— -- A truck driver was in stable condition this morning recovering from an accident on a Kentucky highway where a train smashed into his tractor-trailer, officials said.
His truck, loaded with charcoal lighter fluid, burst into flames as the train hit it.
The truck was headed into Warner Fertilizer in Somerset, Kentucky, Friday when it was hit by a southbound train, investigators say. The truck split on impact, leaving the cab on one side of the track and the trailer on the other.
The driver didn't notice the approaching train as he made a turn and focused on the rear of his truck to ensure that it would not run off the road, the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.
Officials said a UPS train trailer loaded with black powder was just a few cars from the fire on the train, but the fire never made it that far.
“It would be a completely different situation [if fire reached black power],” Doug Baker, chief of Somerset-Pulaski Special Response, told ABC News today. “Luckily, that didn't happen, thanks to the quick actions of the local fire department.”
