82-Year-Old Dies in Amtrack/Truck Crash Near Slidell

A Slidell-area man died Wednesday (September 6, 2017) evening when an Amtrack passenger train crashed into his small pickup at Carr Drive. The train was departing Slidell and headed southbound with 51 passengers on-board. 
Evidence suggested that the pickup truck driver bypassed the crossing arms and drove onto the railroad track into the path of the train. The vehicle was pushed off the track and landed in a nearby marsh. The driver was ejected from the vehicle and pronounced dead on the scene by representatives from the St. Tammany Parish Coroner’s Office. No one else was injured.