A southwest Iowa man died Saturday afternoon, after the truck he was driving was struck by a BNSF train in northwest Missouri’s Atchinson County. According to the Missouri Highway Patrol, 52-year-old Troy L. Landess, of Clarinda, was driving a 2009 Mack truck eastbound on a private levy access road five-miles south of Rock Port, and had attempted to cross a private railroad crossing that was controlled only by a stop sign, when the truck was hit on its passenger side by the northbound locomotive. The accident happened at around 2:30-p.m.

The Patrol says Landess was partially ejected from the truck during the collision. The vehicle came to rest down an embankment, while the train came to stop on the tracks. The Train Engineer, 55-year old Daniel F. Peterson, of Beatrice, NE., was not injured.

Landess was transported to the Nemaha County, MO., Hospital where he was pronounced dead. The Atchison County Sheriff’s Department and Burlington Northern Railroad Police assisted at the scene.