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Gene Kennedy reportingPolice are looking for a man who was driving a stolen car when it smashed into a train in Murray this morning.
It happened at about 4800 South at 2nd West.
The man actually was driving the car down the railroad tracks around 6:45 am when the train approached. The train couldn't stop, and the car couldn't get out of the way, so the two collided.
The driver apparently wasn't badly hurt, because he crawled out of the car and took off on foot. He is still missing. Witnesses did not get a good look at him.
Rob Hall, Murray City Police Dept.: "It’s obvious the driver was very lucky in going head-on with a train. He escaped injury."
Right after the train clipped the car, the engineer described the person in the car as "scared as hell and running for his life."
Fortunately, no one on the train was injured in the incident, but the crash blocked traffic in the area for about an hour and a half while crews cleaned it all up.
Police discovered the car was stolen from West Valley City four days ago. They've had it towed off of the tracks and the area is now clear.
Investigators aren't sure why the man was driving down the tracks, unless perhaps he was casing nearby businesses.
Rob Hall, Murray City Police Dept.: "It's quite unusual to see someone driving partially down the tracks. As I said, there are a lot of businesses, this is an industrial area with a lot of access to businesses from the tracks. Again, we would only be speculating. We did find some bolt cutters inside the car; this is something commonly used for cutting fences, that kind of thing."
