MILLINOCKET – A logging truck driven by a Canadian man was broadsided by a 19-car Bangor and Aroostook train Friday morning after the trucker attempted to outrun the locomotive at a railroad crossing on Route 157.

The collision caused the derailment of the train’s engine and first three cars just after 9:30 a.m. and hurled 4-foot pieces of pulpwood from the truck to the side of the road.

Michel Bisson of Sainte-Justine, Quebec, was headed west on Route 157 near Dolby Pond and came around a curve too fast, according to Officer Aaron Brooker of the Millinocket Police Department. Brooker said the 24-year-old Bisson passed one car waiting at the flashing train signal.

Despite the train’s headlight and the horn sounded by the engineer, Bisson failed to see the oncoming train until he was nearing the track. Bisson said he knew he couldn’t slow down, according to Brooker.

“Instead of stopping, [Bisson] tried to beat the train, and he was hit where the trailer hooks on the truck,” Brooker said.

The impact pushed the truck off the road and forced the train’s engine to derail and land on its side a few hundred feet past the track’s intersection with Route 157. The first three cars were damaged as a result of slamming into each other. The cars also derailed but remained partially upright. The train blocked the road.

Bisson and the train’s engineer, Vern Jacobs of Millinocket, suffered minor injuries from the accident. Both were taken by ambulance to Millinocket Regional Hospital, were treated Friday and released, according to hospital officials. The train’s conductor was not injured in the wreck.

Bisson received a summons for improper passing, imprudent speed, and failure to stop at a railroad warning device.

Brooker said Route 157 was closed for an hour and a half while the road was cleared. He estimated traffic was backed up between three and five miles. Gardiner Chip Mills provided a loader to move the trailer and push the derailed freight cars away from the roadway after they were separated from the remaining cars.

The freight train had a total of 19 cars including the engine. Thirteen of the cars were carrying paper while the other five were carrying wetlap, a product used in making paper. Brooker said the engine essentially was demolished. Including the engine and the first three cars, B&A Railroad Co. estimated the damage at $100,000.

According to Brooker, B&A Railroad Co. hoped to get the track cleared and operational within 24 hours.

Brooker said the tractor-trailer is owned by GD Transport of Sainte-Zacharie, Quebec. He said the trailer was demolished with an estimated damage of $5,000. The tractor received only minimal damage in the wreck.

Bisson’s truck also wrecked the railroad warning device next to the road, although the dollar amount of that damage wasn’t available Friday.

The environmental impact was minimal, according to Jake Ward of the Department of Environmental Protection. Ward estimated that 50 gallons of fuel spilled from the train engine. A crew from Dead River Co. of Millinocket spent Friday afternoon transferring the remaining 500 gallons in the engine into a truck.

The East Millinocket Police Department and game wardens from the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife assisted at the accident.