Car, train crash in downtown Kennewick

An SUV hit a train engine pushing two tanker cars Thursday afternoon in downtown Kennewick.

Traffic Sgt. Matt Newton said the 27-year-old Kennewick man was going north on Fruitland Street around 12:50 p.m. as the crossing arms came down for a train going west.

Witnesses said the driver in his Chevy Avalanche tried to zip past the arms, but clipped one of them instead. The car then hit the lead tanker.

Somehow the car got stuck on the tanker, which dragged the car to the other side of Fruitland, Newton said.

The man somehow untangled his SUV, which ended up in a ditch behind Dent Doctor, just off Fruitland.

Newton said the man reported not seeing the arms.

The driver wasn’t intoxicated, Newton said, but he wasn’t sure if the man was on his phone at the time of the crash.

No one was hurt.

This story was originally published August 16, 2018 at 1:40 PM.