If you derail and are going to crash and stop abruptly, I highly recommend hitting a soft, muddy river bank! This was a St. Louis Southwestern (Cotton Belt) work train on the Trumann Subdivision headed back to the mainline at Malden, Mo. at 27 m.p.h. with FT 913 in the lead on June 7, 1961. In the background those power line poles were alongside county highway "B," and a trucker in a tractor only (no trailer) thought he was going to beat the train to the 90-deg. level grade crossing, known as Bakersville. Visibility in the flatland Missouri bootheel country was not a problem. The truck hit the center of the FT at an estimated speed of 55, knocking it over. There were no skid marks. Running parallel to the highway was an irrigation canal that the railroad crossed on a small wooden trestle which was destroyed when the following eight cars derailed. The nationwide public education program Operation Lifesaver always tells drivers, "You may beat the train but you could be dead wrong," as was the truck driver. I was in the cab of the FT; the engineer sustained two black eyes and was in the hospital two days; the head brakeman needed 27 stitches in his left arm above the elbow, and I didn't have a scratch. The FT never ran again and was traded to EMD.
