Clayton News Daily

Photo by Elaine Rackley The driver of this Cintas box truck walked away from a train wreck in Forest Park without any injuries, according to Clayton County Police. Norfolk Southern closed railroad crossing until further notice.

FOREST PARK — Norfolk Southern Railroad has closed a Forest Park railroad crossing following a train wreck, according to Keith Rohling, the Assistant Director of the Clayton County Department of Transportation.

A Norfolk Southern train collided with a Cintas box truck Thursday around 4:15 p.m., near the intersection of Old Dixie Highway and Charles W. Grant Parkway, Clayton County police spokesperson Charlene Watson-Frazier said.

Watson-Frazier said the unidentified truck driver stalled on the railroad track and the truck was struck by an oncoming train. She said the driver was able to escape before the train crashed into the box truck, she added.

“He saw the oncoming train and was able to get out of the way,” Watson-Frazier said.

No one else was injured in the collision.

“The railroad crossing and warning lights sustained extensive damage,” Watson-Frazier said.

Norfolk Southern Railroad has closed the railroad crossing intersection for at least two days so it could repair the damaged railroad crossing, Rohling said.

“We provided the barricades,” Rohling said, “but it was the railroad that closed down the railroad crossing while they clean everything up and make the repairs.”

Rohling said he has been with the county’s DOT for two and a half years. He said that in that time Thursday’s train wreck was the first he had ever heard of in Clayton County.