A dump truck driver tells News4 he’s lucky to be alive after a VRE train hit his vehicle and dragged it along the tracks. The wreck happened just north of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Southwest Thursday afternoon, and Mark Segraves was at the scene when crews pulled the truck out of the tunnel.
A driver said he's lucky to be alive after his construction truck was hit and dragged by a Virginia Railway Express (VRE) train in Southwest D.C. Thursday.
The VRE train was carrying three crew members and no passengers when it sideswiped the truck in a CSX work zone at about 11:50 a.m.
The three crew members were taken to a hospital for evaluation.
The driver of the truck said the train came up, snagged his truck and dragged it into the tunnel. Crews were removing the truck from the tunnel, which is in the area of 14th Street and Maryland Avenue SW, behind the Mandarin Oriental Hotel.
D.C. Fire and EMS responded to the scene just after noon Thursday.
Crews are assessing damage to the train. A spokesperson for VRE said he believed it was an empty passenger train from Fredericksburg that was coming up to D.C. to be in position for rush hour.
Train traffic in the area is moving slowly; one track is stopped. Trains will single-track in the area while the incident is under investigation.
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Train 311, which was scheduled to leave Union Station at 6 p.m., was canceled. All other train service was expected to depart on-time.
