Train, tanker truck collide in Minnesota; school evacuated

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MURDOCK, Minn., May 7 (UPI) -- A train transporting crude oil collided with a tanker truck carrying anhydrous ammonia in Minnesota, prompting a school evacuation, authorities said Tuesday.

The tanker truck driver was airlifted to a hospital and three train crew members were treated and released, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported. Another truck driver who was visiting a nearby Koch Nitrogen Co. fertilizer plant was taken to a hospital for observation.

About 300 students at nearby Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg Elementary School were evacuated to a high school as a precaution and a major highway was closed, authorities said.

The Star Tribune said the 8:30 a.m. accident near Murdock in west-central Minnesota involved a 102-car BNSF Railway train and a tanker truck that had just left the Koch facility, the Swift County Sheriff's Office said.

Koch spokesman Paul Baltzer said there was an "atmospheric release" of anhydrous ammonia that carried over the plant, but authorities said the public was in no immediate danger.

BNSF spokeswoman Amy McBeth said no crude oil leaked from train, which was bound for Missouri from the Minot, N.D., area.

The crash occurred at a rail crossing regulated by cross bucks and stop signs but no gates, McBeth said.