DEADLY WRECK: Driver ignored lowered railroad-crossing arm; struck by train, police say

El Paso Police say a man riding in a pickup was killed when the truck was struck by a train.

Officials with the department identified the man killed in the wreck as 56-year-old Richard Glen Neal.

The wreck was reported at 12:15 p.m. on July 12, 2018. It happened on a private road adjacent to the 12000 block of Railroad.

Police said 42-year-old Eric Sean Morin was driving a 2016 Ford F-350 on the private road. Two passengers were riding in Morin’s truck: Neal and 58-year-old Rolando Valdez.

Police said that while attempting to get onto Railroad drive from the private road, “Morin drove around a lowered railroad-crossing arm, but stopped on the railroad tracks due to a gate on the other side of the tracks.”

According to police, the truck was “broadsided by a northbound Union Pacific train.”

During the collision, Neal was ejected from the pickup. Police said Neal was riding in a back seat and not wearing a seatbelt.

Morin and the front passenger, Valdez, were wearing seat belts. They sustained non-life threatening injuries, police said.

“This crash is not a traffic fatality under the traffic code because it did not occur on a public roadway,” police said.